IPL Rewind: Wooden Spoon winners of every season
The Indian Premier League (IPL) is taunted as the best T20 league in terms of quality of sport and competition. However, it’s often seen that many franchises do come up with poor performances during a season and end up in bottom four. It could be a result of the teams struggling to cope up to the expectations and pressure found at this level. One team has to end up with the bottom-most position during every season, a place where no side wants to be at even during their low times.
Here are the wooden spoon holders in each IPL season:
2008 – Deccan Chargers:
Despite some of the big cricketing names present in the squad of Deccan Chargers, they finished at the bottom in the inaugural edition of the tournament. They defeated Mumbai Indians by ten wickets while chasing a 150+ target to register their first win of the season. A couple of defeats later, Adam Gilchrist took over the captaincy duties from VVS Laxman. Deccan thumped Chennai Super Kings at the Chepauk in Gilchrist’s first match as captain. However, they lost the remaining matches and finished bottom with just four points.
2009 – Kolkata Knight Riders:
Kolkata Knight Riders failed badly in the 2009 edition where they managed to win as few as three matches. Under the captaincy of Brendon McCullum, KKR ended up losing as many as ten matches while another game ended in a washout. Two of those victories came towards the latter stages where they defeated the previous season’s finalists CSK and RR in back to back matches.
2010 – Kings XI Punjab:
Kings XI Punjab failed to get going in the 2010 edition where they ended up bagging the wooden spoon. The Punjab franchise could only win four matches and lost the remaining ten matches. Barring the KXIP, all the remaining seven teams managed to win at least six matches. Two of the four wins of Punjab came against MI and CSK who went on to qualify to the finals of the tournament.
2011 – Delhi Daredevils:
The 2011 edition was expanded to ten teams where the bottom-most position had a tough competition. The new team Pune Warriors India and Delhi Daredevils lost nine matches and could only win four games apiece. The two teams faced off in their respective last league match where the loser was expected to finish No.10. However, the match was washed out and Pune team, due to a better NRR compared to Delhi, escaped the wooden spoon.
2012 – Pune Warriors India:
After escaping the bottom spot in 2011, the Pune Warriors bagged an embarrassing record in the 2012 season. They lost as many as 12 matches of the 16 matches including nine in a row to finish the season. Deccan Chargers, with two wins in their last two league matches, ended up with nine points, only one point more than the Pune franchise.
2013 – Delhi Daredevils:
A season after topping the points table, the Daredevils bagged the wooden spoon winning just three of the 16 matches. With 13 defeats during the season, the Daredevils scripted a new record for most defeats in an IPL season. However, one of their three victories came against the Mumbai Indians who went on to win the title and one more against the defending champions Kolkata Knight Riders.
2014 – Delhi Daredevils:
The Delhi Daredevils became the first team to finish at the bottom in successive seasons as they occupied the No.8 position in the 2014 season. The Delhi franchise won only two of the 14 matches and lost in the remaining 12 games. Their first win came against KKR who went on to win the title for the 2nd time while the second against the previous season champions MI. The Daredevils lost all the nine matches played in India during the season.
2015 – Kings XI Punjab:
Daredevils did escape winning the wooden spoon for the 3rd consecutive season as Kings XI Punjab performed even worse. Delhi finished No.7 with five wins while the Punjab franchise won only three matches. The remaining six teams in the tournament won at least seven matches apiece. Interestingly, all three wins of KXIP came against the teams that qualified to the playoffs.
2016 – Kings XI Punjab:
The 2016 season saw Rising Pune Supergiant and Gujarat Lions taking the places of CSK and RR. But Kings XI Punjab’s bottom spot remained unchanged as they won only four of the 14 league games. MS Dhoni, who took CSK to playoffs every time in the first eight seasons, helped his team RPS escape from bagging the bottom spot. Dhoni smashed sixes off the last two balls when Pune were 12 runs away from a win in their last league match against KXIP. This win helped RPS to move on to No.7 with five wins.
2017 – Royal Challengers Bangalore:
The RCB team came close to winning their maiden title in 2016 season but in 2017 season, they bagged the wooden spoon for the first time. The Bangalore campaign was hit by injuries to their key players through the season. As a result, they won only three of the 14 league matches and lost as many as ten matches. Two of their three wins came against Daredevils who finished No.6 and one more against Gujarat Lions who ended at No.7.
2018 – Delhi Daredevils:
The Delhi Daredevils returned to the bottom position in 2018 after escaping for the past three seasons. They managed to win only five of the 14 league matches which made 2018 the first-ever IPL season with all teams winning a minimum of five matches. Daredevils saw a switch in captaincy from Gautam Gambhir to Shreyas Iyer in the middle of the season. Three of Delhi’s five wins came against the playoff teams. Delhi defeated MI in the last league match to knock the defending champions out of playoffs.
2019 – Royal Challengers Bangalore:
The RCB team might consider themselves unlucky to finish at the bottom of the table in the 2019 season. The bottom-placed RCB and 4th ranked SRH were separated by only one point. KXIP and KKR also finished with six wins just like SRH while Rajasthan Royals and RCB won only five each. The match between them ended in a washout which is why both the teams had 11 points.
