Fifty-three days in the desert
For most of 2020 there was no reason to expect an IPL at all. The season was meant to start on 29 March at the Wankhede. Maharashtra said any matches would have to be played in empty stadiums, Delhi said none at all, and on 13 March the BCCI pushed the start to 15 April. When the national lockdown was extended, the tournament was suspended indefinitely. It came back only after the ICC postponed the T20 World Cup and freed a window: 19 September to 10 November, all of it in the United Arab Emirates.
Three grounds carried sixty matches. Dubai hosted 26, Abu Dhabi 22, Sharjah 12. Everyone lived inside a bio-bubble, tested every few days, no families for weeks at a stretch, no crowds anywhere. The broadcast piped in artificial noise, but you could hear the bat, and the fielders, and Dhoni talking behind the stumps. For Indian viewers watching from a year of lockdowns, that was oddly intimate. Vivo pulled out as title sponsor after a public backlash and Dream11 paid ₹222 crore to take the season.
The pitches did strange things. Sharjah, with its short square boundaries, produced a run glut early. By the second half of the league stage, with the same three surfaces used over and over, the ball was gripping and chases were falling apart. Kings XI Punjab lost seven of their first nine and then won five in a row. Chennai Super Kings missed the playoffs for the first time in their history.
Four ties and a hundred nobody saw live
Four matches finished level. Delhi Capitals beat Kings XI in a Super Over on 20 September. Royal Challengers beat Mumbai in one on 28 September. Kolkata beat Sunrisers in another. And on 18 October, Mumbai and Kings XI tied the match, then tied the Super Over, and Kings XI won the second one. That had never happened in the IPL before.
KL Rahul, captaining Kings XI and keeping wicket, made 132 not out off 69 against Royal Challengers Bangalore, the highest score by an Indian batsman in the IPL, and finished with the Orange Cap on 670 runs. Kagiso Rabada took 30 wickets for Delhi and the Purple Cap. Jofra Archer was named Most Valuable Player for a Rajasthan Royals side that never got near the playoffs.
Delhi Capitals reached the first final in the franchise's history. Mumbai had already beaten them by nine wickets in the league and by 57 runs in Qualifier 1. In the final at Dubai on 10 November, Trent Boult had Marcus Stoinis caught behind with the first ball of the match and Ajinkya Rahane soon after, and Delhi never recovered. Shreyas Iyer's unbeaten 65 rescued them to 156 for 7. Rohit Sharma made 68 and Mumbai won by five wickets with eight balls to spare.
What it proved
It was Mumbai's fifth title and made them only the second side, after Chennai in 2010 and 2011, to win in consecutive seasons. More than that, the season showed a full IPL could be staged in a pandemic, in another country, without losing a match to the virus. Every board watching took notes. The bubble became normal, and so did the idea that the IPL could be picked up and put down somewhere else at short notice and still be the IPL.