| 2015 Indian Premier League | |
| Administrator: | Board of Control for Cricket in India |
| Cricket Format: | Twenty20 |
| Tournament Format: | Double round robin and playoffs |
| Host: | India |
| Champions: | Mumbai Indians |
| Runner Up: | Chennai Super Kings |
| Count: | 2 |
| Participants: | 8 |
| Matches: | 60 |
| Most Valuable Player: | Andre Russell (KKR) |
| Most Runs: | David Warner (SRH) (562) |
| Most Wickets: | Dwayne Bravo (CSK) (26) |
| Previous Year: | 2014 |
| Previous Tournament: | 2014 Indian Premier League |
| Next Year: | 2016 |
| Next Tournament: | 2016 Indian Premier League |
The 2015 Indian Premier League season (also known as IPL 8 or, for sponsorship reasons, Pepsi IPL 2015) was the eighth season of the Indian Premier League, a Twenty20 cricket league established by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007. The tournament featured eight teams and was held from 8 April 2015 to 24 May 2015.[1] The tournament's opening ceremony was held at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata on 7 April 2015. Kolkata Knight Riders were the defending champions having won the title in the 2014 season.
On 24 May 2015, Mumbai Indians defeated Chennai Super Kings by 41 runs in the final at Eden Gardens, Kolkata, to win the IPL title for the second time. Mumbai captain Rohit Sharma was awarded player of the match in the final for his knock of 50 from 26 balls. Andre Russell of the Kolkata Knight Riders was named Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the season. This was the last time that Sony Television Network broadcast the tournament before Star Sports Network took the broadcasting rights from the 8th season and are currently bearing the broadcasting rights for the tournament.
See main article: List of 2015 Indian Premier League personnel changes. The eight franchises retained a total of 123 players for the 2015 IPL season before moving into the auction. The released players were provided an option to register themselves for auction. Six players were traded across teams before the auction took place. At the 2015 IPL auction held on 16 February at Bangalore, Yuvraj Singh was sold to Delhi Daredevils for 16 crore, a record bid in IPL auction history. A total of 67 players were sold out in the auction and the franchises spent a total of 87.60 crore to buy the players.[2]
The 2015 IPL season saw 26 match officials, 13 Indian umpires and four match referees officiating. 26 match officials (umpires and referees) participated in a two-day workshop, organised by the BCCI, in preparation for the 2015 IPL season. The workshop was held at the Cricket Centre, Mumbai, on 4 and 5 April 2015, from 9am to 5pm.[3]
12 venues were selected to host the league stage matches.[4] Mumbai, Pune and Ranchi hosted Qualifier 1, Eliminator and Qualifier 2 respectively and Kolkata hosted the Final.[5]
| Ahmedabad | Bangalore | Chennai | Delhi | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rajasthan Royals | Royal Challengers Bangalore | Chennai Super Kings | Delhi Daredevils | |
| Sardar Patel Stadium | M. Chinnaswamy Stadium | M. A. Chidambaram Stadium | Feroz Shah Kotla | |
| Capacity: 54,000 [6] | Capacity: 36,760 [7] | Capacity: 37,220 | Capacity: 55,000 | |
| Hyderabad | Kolkata | |||
| Sunrisers Hyderabad | Kolkata Knight Riders | |||
| Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium | Eden Gardens | |||
| Capacity: 55,000 | Capacity: 67,000[8] | |||
| Mohali | Mumbai | |||
| Kings XI Punjab | Mumbai Indians | |||
| Punjab Cricket Association Stadium | Wankhede Stadium | |||
| Capacity: 40,000 | Capacity: 33,320 | |||
| Mumbai | Pune | Raipur | Vishakhapatnam | |
| Rajasthan Royals | Kings XI Punjab | Delhi Daredevils | Sunrisers Hyderabad | |
| Brabourne Stadium | Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium | Raipur International Cricket Stadium | ACA-VDCA Stadium | |
| Capacity: 20,000 | Capacity: 36,000 | Capacity: 50,000 | Capacity: 38,000 | |
| Kolkata | Mumbai | |
|---|---|---|
| Final | Qualifier 1 | |
| Eden Gardens | Wankhede Stadium | |
| Capacity: 67,000 | Capacity: 33,320 | |
| Pune | Ranchi | |
| Eliminator | Qualifier 2 | |
| Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium | JSCA International Cricket Stadium | |
| Capacity: 36,000 | Capacity: 39,000 | |
BCCI started a new initiative IPL Fanpark to spread the reach of IPL across the country. As a part of the initiative, IPL was made available in the stadiums across 15 cities, apart from the 12 venues hosting the matches, on a large screen. The access to these stadiums was free and based on first-come first-served basis.[9]
The opening ceremony was held at the Salt Lake Stadium in Kolkata, on 7 April 2015. The captains of all eight teams signed the "MCC Spirit of Cricket" pledge. The ceremony featured live performances of Hrithik Roshan, Anushka Sharma, Farhan Akhtar, Shahid Kapoor among others. The ceremony began after a one and a half hours delay due to rain.[10]
("C" refers to the "Champions" of the Tournament. 'R'(2nd Position), '3' and '4' are the positions of the respective teams in the tournament.)
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See main article: 2015 Indian Premier League final.
| Player | Team | Runs | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 14 | 14 | 562 | |||
| Lendl Simmons | 13 | 13 | 540 | ||
| Ajinkya Rahane | 14 | 13 | 540 | not out | |
| AB de Villiers | 16 | 14 | 513 | not out | |
| Virat Kohli | 16 | 16 | 505 | not out | |
| Player | Team | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dwayne Bravo | 17 | 16 | 26 | 3/22 | ||
| Lasith Malinga | 15 | 15 | 24 | 4/23 | ||
| Yuzvendra Chahal | 15 | 14 | 23 | 3/40 | ||
| Ashish Nehra | 16 | 16 | 22 | 4/10 | ||
| Mitchell Starc | 13 | 12 | 20 | 4/15 |
| Player | Team | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dwayne Bravo | 17 | 13 | ||
| Ravindra Jadeja | 17 | 13 | ||
| Suresh Raina | 17 | 11 | ||
| Ambati Rayudu | 15 | 9 | ||
| Kieron Pollard | 16 | 9 |