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The eleventh edition of the IPL has been the most close contested and fiercly competitive seasons in the tournament history. It saw an immense tussle for the playoffs spots and bore witness to many thrilling games throughout.
Many a time, teams came back from unwinnable positions to pull a rabbit out of the hat to secure a victory in the game. Sometimes though, they ended up bottling straightforward chances to win against certain oppositions.
Let us take a look at one game each team lost from a winning position in IPL 2018:
#8 Delhi Daredevils: vs Kings XI Punjab, Delhi
Despite doing everything they could to revamp and revitalize their squad, the Delhi Daredevils find themselves with the wooden spoon in yet another season of the Indian Premier League.
They lost most of their matches by a significant margin, but some got away by the width of a toothpick. One game that they really should've won was when they had to chase just 144 against the Kings XI Punjab at the Feroz Shah Kotla on April 23.
Delhi needed 48 off the last five overs with five wickets in hand. It was not an impossible task, more so with Shreyas Iyer on the crease. However, DD capitulated thereafter and lost their batsmen at regular intervals in the next 30 deliveries.
Iyer was unbeaten till the last ball of the chase but was stranded at one end while wickets kept tumbling before him.
The right-handed batsman did get the strike on the last ball of the chase but his side required runs runs to take the game home. However, he could not clear the boundary and was caught in the deep for a well-made 57 off 45 deliveries.
This was the loss that propelled Gautam Gambhir to step down from the captaincy and let Iyer take the reins from there on.
#7 Kings XI Punjab: vs Mumbai Indians, Mumbai
While Ravichandran Ashwin and the Kings XI Punjab started the tournament on a very positive note, their form deserted them in the second half, as they fell out of the top four with a string of uncharacteristic losses.
One of them came against the Mumbai Indians, while both the teams were vying for a top-four finish during the last lap of the league stage. Chasing a target of 187, the game was firmly in the hands of Punjab, as they required 23 off 12 with seven wickets in hand to clinch two points from the encounter.
However, that's when Jasprit Bumrah decided to bring his best to the table before the enthralled faces at the Wankhede Stadium, giving away just 6 runs in the penultimate over and scalping the all-important wicket of KL Rahul.
Punjab required 17 off the final over, and ultimately, fell short by 3 runs to hand over the result to an ecstatic Rohit Sharma on the day.
#6 Royal Challengers Bangalore: vs Chennai Super Kings, Bangalore
When the batting side requires 45 off 18 deliveries with five of their premier batsmen back in the hut, the fielding team tends to win the contest seven times out of ten. However, Virat Kohli and the Royal Challengers Bangalore could not defend the same against MS Dhoni and the Chennai Super Kings at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium on April 25.
Having found his form from the beginning of the tournament, Dhoni was wrecking havoc at the crease and tormenting the Bangalore bowlers from the word go. However, with 16 needed off the final over to get to the target of 206, the CSK skipper and Dwayne Bravo were under considerable pressure in the middle.
The duo stepped up brilliantly, though, spanking Corey Anderson for 17 runs in just four deliveries to reach the mammoth total set up by RCB on the day.
#5 Mumbai Indians: vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, Hyderabad
Of all the teams participating in the contest, it was Mumbai Indians that gave the maximum options to choose from in this category. Rohit Sharma and Co. lost numerous closely-contested matches in the tournament, more so in its first half.
However, the one loss that would sting them the most will be when they one-wicket defeat against the Sunrisers Hyderabad off the last delivery of the game at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium on April 12.
SRH needed just 15 in the last three overs with five wickets in hand, but made a meal out of the task at hand to struggle at 137 for the loss of nine wickets after the penultimate over. They required 11 off the last over to win the game, which was to be bowled by Ben Cutting.
It was Deepak Hooda smoked a six off the very first delivery by Cutting to turn the tides in SRH's favour. Billy Stanlake, the number 11, was responsible for hitting the winning run - and he did, with a shot lofted calmly over mid-wicket to take his side home on the day.
#4 Rajasthan Royals: Eliminator vs Kolkata Knight Riders
It is a pity that the biggest bottle-job from the Rajasthan Royals came in their most important game of the tournament. After making an inspired entry into the playoffs of IPL 2018, it was imperative for the Royals to bat well to chase the target of 170 set up by KKR at the Eden Gardens on Wednesday (May 23).
They were well on track too, as they required 61 off the last six overs with nine wickets in hand. However, that's when the KKR spin-trio fo Sunil Narine, Piyush Chawla, and Kuldeep Yadav came to the party, and sliced through the Rajasthan batting line-up.
A match that was comfortably in reach of the Royals was ultimately pocketed by the home side and that too, with a massive margin of 25 runs. All the big names in the RR batting unit either gave their wicket away at the worst moment or never got going on the day, resulting in their team being knocked out of the competition.
#3 Kolkata Knight Riders: Qualifier 2 vs Sunrisers Hyderabad
Just like the RR, the Kolkata Knight Rider's biggest capitulation this year came in their most important encounter of IPL 2018. They were chasing 175 at home against the Sunrisers Hyderabad, with just 82 runs required off ten overs for them to book a spot in the final against CSK. They had lost just two wickets and looked comfortable against the SRH bowling attack.
However, that's when Rashid Khan started terrorizing the KKR batsmen on the spin-friendly wicket at Eden Gardens and ultimately, ended up with figures of three for 19 in his quota of four overs.
KKR lost the game by a margin of 15 runs, failing to stitch a formidable partnership in the middle and bowing out of the competition after its second-last game.
#2 Sunrisers Hyderabad: Qualifier 1 vs Chennai Super Kings
The Chennai Super Kings have been the ultimate comeback-masters of this tournament, especially while chasing a stiff target despite falling short in the middle overs of the game. They did it multiple times in the league stages, and in case the naysayers doubted their ability to handle pressure in big games, they silenced them by doing it again in the first qualifier of the tournament.
The Men in Yellow were reduced to 97/7 after 17 overs of the second innings, while chasing 140 against the revered bowling-attack of SRH. They required 43 off 18 deliveries and even with Faf du Plessis at the crease, it seemed quite an uphill task for CSK.
MS Dhoni's men scaled their Everest, though, and did it in style, with five balls to spare. A massacre by Du Plessis and a terrific cameo from Shardul Thakur saw them through to their seventh IPL final in just nine seasons.
#1 Chennai Super Kings: vs Rajasthan Royals, Jaipur
English wicketkeeper-batsman, Jos Buttler, who struggled immensely in the first half of the tournament, came back to his top form after being promoted to the top of the order by the RR management. He scored five half-centuries on the trot and took his team home almost singlehandedly on more than one occasion.
One of these games was against the Chennai Super Kings, when the right-handed batsman powered his team to a mammoth total of 177 at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur on May 11. RR were 139/4 after 17 overs, requiring 38 runs off the final three to win the game.
It was Buttler who stayed put through those 18 deliveries, guiding his team home in 19.5 overs with an incredible knock of 95* off just 60 balls. This was a very important win for the Royals, one which kept them afloat in the competition and kept the tussle for the top-four spots alive in the tournament.
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