Home and away, finally
IPL 2023 was the first proper season since 2019. Grounds full, teams playing at their own venues, seven home games each, the whole circus back on the road from Mohali to Guwahati to Dharamshala. Ten teams, 74 matches, and a new rule that changed how sides were picked. The Impact Player let each team substitute one of four named replacements mid-match, which in practice meant every batting side had an extra batter and every bowling side an extra bowler. Totals went up. Two hundred stopped being a winning score.
Gujarat Titans, defending the title, were again the most settled team in the competition and again topped the table. Shubman Gill turned the last month of the season into a personal exhibition, finishing with 890 runs, and Mohammed Shami took 28 wickets with the new ball. Behind them the table was a mess. Lucknow, Mumbai, Rajasthan and Bangalore all had the fourth spot in hand at some point and only Mumbai took it, on the final night of the league stage.
Chennai's slow build
Chennai Super Kings lost their opener at Ahmedabad and were nobody's favourites in April. What they built through May was an opening pair, Devon Conway and Ruturaj Gaikwad, who gave them a start almost every week, and a death bowler in Matheesha Pathirana whose low slinging action reminded everybody of Malinga. Pathirana's 3 for 15 against Mumbai at Chepauk in early May was the sort of spell Chennai had not had since Bravo's best years. They beat Gujarat by 15 runs in Qualifier 1 at Chepauk to reach a tenth final.
Gujarat came through the other way. Gill made 129 off 60 against Mumbai in Qualifier 2, the highest score anyone has made in an IPL playoff, and the Titans put 233 on the board.
The longest night
The final was scheduled for 28 May in Ahmedabad. It rained all evening and the game was never started, the first time an IPL final had been pushed to a reserve day. On 29 May Dhoni put Gujarat in and they made 214 for 4, the highest total in an IPL final, Sai Sudharsan hitting 96 off 47 and Wriddhiman Saha 54.
Then it rained again. Chennai's chase was cut to 15 overs with a revised target of 171. Conway made 47 off 25, Shivam Dube came in as the Impact Player and finished on 32, and Mohit Sharma bowled a spell of 3 for 36 that had Ajinkya Rahane, Ambati Rayudu and Dhoni out and Gujarat within touching distance. Jadeja settled it at the end, 15 not out from six balls with a four and a six. It finished at 1.35 in the morning on 30 May. Conway was player of the match.
Five and five
The title was Chennai's fifth, which drew them level with Mumbai Indians. Dhoni, at 41, had knees that were held together by strapping and a farewell that he refused to confirm. He came out for the presentation, said he would take his time deciding, and left the question hanging for another year. For a generation of Indian viewers who grew up on yellow jerseys, that final over is the piece of IPL 2023 that stayed.