IPL 2019: The first ever happenings in the tournament's history

The 2019 Indian Premier League (IPL) is easily one of the closely fought editions of the tournament which ended with a thriller of a final won by Mumbai Indians. The final four were not confirmed until the last league game while none of the eight teams won at least one game against the remaining seven franchises. Chasing team got over the line in the final over on as many as 18 instances while the team batting first won by less than ten runs on four occasions in this edition.

Here are some of the major first happenings in the history of the IPL during the 2019 edition:

A valiant effort

In the opening game of the season, the Royal Challengers Bangalore were bowled out for only 70 runs against the Chennai Super Kings. The RCB opener Parthiv Patel nearly carried his bat as he scored 29 off 35 balls and was dismissed in the 18th over as the 10th wicket. In this process, Parthiv became the first player to bat with remaining ten batsmen in an IPL inning.

The closest points table

Sunrisers Hyderabad became the first team to make it to the playoffs despite winning only six games. All the teams that qualified for the second round in the first 11 editions of the IPL won at least seven matches. The Royal Challengers, who finished at the bottom, had 11 points. The 11 points are the highest for any team in the IPL that ended up with a wooden spoon.