IPL 2021: Top 5 best comebacks in the history of the tournament

Everyone who watches sports loves a great turnaround story. But that is what sports allow. It allows someone to come back after a bad performance, try to defeat their opponents. With all this competitiveness, fans get really engaged when something like this happens. 

There is a reason why underdog stories or comeback stories hit home. It makes us believe that there is always hope to turn around, work on our mistakes and perform better in the future. In the IPL we have witnessed several such drastic turnarounds. We have seen teams coming back from very bad losses and showing their true skills. 

The fact that the IPL is played over a space of 14 matches, allows teams to fix their problems, figure out their strengths, and gel properly. This large number of matches also adds a lot of context to a team’s journey to win a championship title.

Let us look back at the top 5 times teams made outstanding comebacks to qualify for the IPL playoffs:

1. Mumbai Indians, 2014

2013 was a special year for Mumbai Indians. They found a new responsible captain in Rohit Sharma, who helped them win their maiden title. The fact that Rohit came in the middle of the tournament and replaced Ricky Ponting as the captain, just tells you how much he had matured as a player. They also won the Champions League T20 later that year. 

But, the 2014 season started quite badly for Mumbai. The teams were shuffled and a big auction meant Mumbai found it a little difficult initially to get their combinations right. The first leg of the tournament was played in the UAE, due to general elections. Rohit and co. lost all the five matches which they played in the middle east.

Even after the 10th match, the team had won only three matches. But, they turned around their fortunes by winning the last four league matches and qualified for the playoff after a dramatic finish against Rajasthan Royals at the Wankhede. They chased 190 in 14.4 overs to go through to the playoffs. But, they lost their Eliminator against Chennai to eventually get knocked out.