Indian Premier League has ended and with that ends the intense battle between teams of the highest caliber fighting for that elusive title. Kolkata Knight Riders upstaged two times champions Chennai Super Kings and won their maiden title.

IPL 5 has been considered as the best season in the tournament’s short history. This season has seen it all -- the last ball finishes, some miraculous performance with both bat and ball and some controversies as well. What lit up this season was the close finishes that almost give viewers the heart attack. Right from the first match till the finals (which was also a last ball finish) there have been a number of occasions where a team has pulled up an expected result.

Let’s have a look at some of the moments that made this IPL such a hit.

Kolkata defeating Chennai to win IPL-5: This was the biggest moment of them all. Not many people gave KKR much chance against the two time champions Chennai Super Kings.  CSK stamped their authority on the match with a humongous total. KKR lost their best batsmen Gautam Gambhir very early in the innings and it all looked gone for the team from Kolkata. But, some tremendous batting performances by Bisla and Kallis took KKR to a winning position. KKR needed nine runs to win in the final over and some intelligent batting by both Shakib and Tiwary gave KKR the ultimate glory.

AB de Villiers hitting Dale Steyn for 23 runs in an over: That was one of the best batting performances of IPL-5. RCB needed 39 runs in three overs and they brought their premier bowler Dale Steyn to bowl the 18th over. His countrymate didn’t show any respect to the world’s best fast bowler and hit him for 23 runs in the over. It was not that Steyn bowled a horrible over but it was just class batting from the South African captain. The six that he hit over extra cover on a Yorker is one of the best shot played in this season.

Dwayne Smith scoring 14 runs of 3 balls to win the match: Mumbai Indians were cruising against Chennai Super Kings before they lost some quick wickets and handed Chennai the advantage. Ben Hilfenhaus was bowling the last over and he bowled three good deliveries to make things almost impossible for Mumbai to win. But, Dwayne Smith who was playing his first match this season had different plans as he hit one six and two back to back boundaries tp win Mumbai an amazing win. In that innings Smith hit the ball straight and hard,  

Dwayne Bravo hitting a six when Chennai needed five to win off the last ball: Chennai Super Kings controlled the match for the most part of the innings till the time their batsmen played negatively and got Kolkata Knight Riders back in the game. Rajat Bhatia bowled the last over and he bowled five superb deliveries, one on which he got the wicket of MS Dhoni. In the end, Chennai needed five runs to win off the last ball and on strike was Dwayne Bravo: Bhatia in an attempt to ball a Yorker bowled a low full toss which was dispatched to the stands by Bravo to pull up an emphatic victory.

Ajit Chandila’s hat-trick against Pune Warriors: Chandila was playing his second match for the Rajasthan Royals and he shocked each and everyone with his bowling performance against Pune Warriors. Dravid gave Chandila the new ball and the slow off-spinner picked up the wicket of Jesse Ryder, on the next ball he got the wicket of Sourav Ganguly who lost his balance and was stumped. With the first ball of his secong over, Chandila deceived Uthappa with a perfect leg-spinner and hence became the only bowler to have taken the hat-trick in IPL-5.


By Indian Sports News Network