The biggest extravaganza in T20 cricket has seen some exceptional moments so far.
With the tournament returning to the traditional home and away format, the fans, at the stadium and watching on television sets have been delivered a complete package of entertainment and the cricket fever keeps growing with each passing day.
With a third of the league phase of the tournament now done, TimesofIndia.com here takes a look at top 10 best on-field moments of the season so far:
1. Rinku’s 5 sixes
When Kolkata Knight Riders’ Rinku Singh smoked Yash Dayal for five back-to-back sixes to pull off a miraculous heist against Gujarat Titans every cricket fan around the world witnessed something unbelievable.
Arguably one of the best moments in the history of the IPL, Rinku’s final over heroics against the defending champions will be etched in history books in golden words.
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With 28 needed off the final 5 balls, no one expected a KKR win, but Rinku, against all odds, pulled off something spectacular to become an overnight sensation.
2. Rishabh’s IPL appearance
After narrowly surviving a serious car crash and currently being on the road to recovery, Delhi Capitals’ regular skippr Rishabh Pant brought a big smile to the faces of cricket fans around the world when he made an appearance in his side’s first home game of the season against the Gujarat Titans.
Walking on crutches but with a big smile on his face, Pant cheered for Delhi Capitals from the stands.
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It was Pant’s first public appearance after surviving a car crash in December last year.
The 25-year-old will be out of action for the foreseeable future, but his appearance in the stadium did send the fans into a frenzy.
Pant also later met his teammates at a Delhi training session.
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3. Rashid Khan hat-trick
Afghanistan’s ace leg-spinner Rashid Khan once again reminded the world why he is the best in the business after he grabbed the first hat-trick of the 2023 season against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
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Rashid registered his first ever hat-trick in the IPL when he dismissed Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Shardul Thakur off successive deliveries to turn the game on its head.
However, destiny eventually went against Rashid in that game as his side lost the contest courtesy Rinku Singh’s five sixes mania in the final over. Rashid was also the stand-in captain in that match since Hardik Pandya was unwell.
4. LSG’s one-wicket last-ball win
While Rinku Singh’s last over five sixes is the best moment of IPL 16 so far, Lucknow Super Giants’ last-ball win against the Royals Challengers Bangalore matched that drama, putting everyone on the edge of their seats.
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As Harshal Patel missed out on a mankading attempt off the final ball with LSG needing one run, Avesh Khan and Ravi Bishnoi stole a bye as LSG pulled off a thrilling one-wicket win. Veteran stumper Dinesh Karthik fumbling under pressure and Avesh and Ravi’s quick thinking gave LSG a memorable win.
With Avesh smashing his helmet on the ground after the win and opposition skipper Faf du Plessis putting his head down in absolute disappointment, the pictures said it all about the emotions running wild in this cracker of a contest.
5. Arjun Tendulkar‘s maiden IPL wicket
Waiting for his chance in the Mumbai Indians dugout for two seasons, Arjun Tendulkar finally had his big IPL moment when he took his maiden wicket in his side’s 14-run win against Sunrisers Hyderabad.
After going wicketless in his first match, Arjun, son of the legendary Sachin Tendulkar, had 20 runs to defend when he came out to bowl the final over of the match vs SRH.
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The 23-year-old showed terrific discipline and composure as he gave away just 4 runs and got rid of SRH’s Bhuvneshwar Kumar to deliver MI their third win of the season.
6. ‘Superman’ Markram’s 2 screamers in the same over
Sunrisers skipper Aiden Markram showed off his superhuman skills with his double fielding stunners in the match against the Mumbai Indians. The Markram screamers were pulled off in the 12th over when his stupendous efforts helped SRH get rid of key MI batters Ishan Kishan and Suryakumar Yadav.
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Markram, off the first ball of the Marco Jansen over, ran almost 30 yards from mid-on to deep mid wicket and then dived to his right to send Ishan packing. He then helped Jansen remove Suryakumar as he flew to his right while fielding at mid-off and caught the ball mid-air while diving to his left.
Sunrisers however lost the contest by 14 runs after failing to chase down 193.
7. The Kohli-Ganguly ‘cold war’
The Virat Kohli vs Sourav Ganguly saga was one of the hottest cricket topics last year. And it seems like the dust hasn’t settled on that yet. It looked like tensions were high between the two Indian superstars during the Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Delhi Capitals clash.
While Kohli was seen staring at Ganguly during the match, the latter jumped the queue while the two teams were shaking hands after the game. Virat and Ganguly didn’t shake hands and later
reports emerged that both have unfollowed each other on social media platform Instagram.
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8. Kohli-Dhoni reunion
The MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli reunion is always a special one and after a high-scoring thriller at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru when the iconic duo got together, it brought a big smile to the faces of fans around the world.
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After the high-octane clash between the two sides, pics of the Dhoni-Kohli meet-up on the ground took social media by storm.
Former India skipper Kohli also shared an image of himself hugging the legend.
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