Bangalore to host IPL 2016 final

If not at Mumbai then where? The question over which venue will host the final of the Indian Premier League (IPL) season 9 has finally been answered as the IPL Governing Council met and decided to shift the matches that were earlier scheduled to be hosted in Mumbai and other grounds in Maharashtra out of the state due to a Bombay High Court order. The M Chinnaswamy stadium in Bangalore will now host the final of the IPL 2016 along with the first qualifier while the eliminator and the second qualifier will be played at the Feroz Shah Kotla stadium in New Dehi.

A press release on iplt20.com also stated that Visakhapatnam has been selected as the home for the two teams from Maharashtra the Mumbai Indians and the Rising Pune Supergiants and Vizag will now host their home games: “The Indian Premier League Governing Council today announced that Vizag will be the neutral venue for Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants home matches post May 1, 2016 for the 2016 VIVO IPL season.”

Jaipur was also considered as an option but with the state already under water crisis and a petition filed against it in the High Court, the IPL GC decided against going ahead with it, “The IPL GC extended gratitude towards the Government of Rajasthan and thanked the Rajasthan Sports Minister Mr. Gajendra Singh Khimsar for the efforts to get the Sawai Mansingh Cricket Stadium ready for hosting the matches. However, due to paucity of time and uncertainty surrounding whether the matches will be held or not, the IPL GC decided that Vizag will be neutral venue for both Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiants.”

Both the teams seem to be satisfied with the decision and are keen to play their home matches at the Dr. Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy ACA-VDCA Cricket Stadium in Vizag.

Along with the change in venue, the match timings have also been shuffled, the Kings XI Punjab v Sunrisers Hyderabad match to be played at Mohali on the 15th of May will now start at 4:00 PM IST whereas the second match of the day between Mumbai Indians and Delhi Daredevils at Vizag will be played in the 8:00 PM IST slot.

The revised venues for IPL 2016 Playoffs are as under:

News Alert: #VIVOIPL Playoffs – Bengaluru to host Qualifier 1 and Final, Delhi gets Qualifier 2 and Eliminator

— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 29, 2016