Bottom of the table – the humiliating place every team wishes to avoid
Be it proving worth as a captain or young players trying to grasp attention in a bid to gain the place in the national side, the Indian Premier League (IPL) is a highly competitive T20 domestic league in which, coming last is never an option. Unfortunately, one team every year has to settle at the bottom of the table. In the following paragraphs, we have listed the teams from 2008 to 2014 who ended at the bottom in the IPL.
In the inaugural season in 2008, the unfortunate team was the Deccan Chargers. In 14 matches, Deccan Chargers won only two games and lost the other 12, scoring only four points on the table. If we are correct, this was the lowest number of points a team has accumulated in the last 17 seasons of the tournament. The champions of the first season were Rajasthan Royals.
Expectations were high from the star-studded line-up of Kolkata Knight Riders. However, the team hit a bottom low in 2009, winning only three games out of 14. The team lost ten, whereas one match ended without a result, and Kolkata could only collect seven points. On the other hand, Deccan Chargers made a complete U-turn and became the champions.
The devastated Brendon McCullum engaged in deep thought about the team’s poor campaign
Kings XI Punjab, now called Punjab Kings, finished at the bottom of the IPL table in 2010. The team won only four games out of 14 and suffered heavy defeats in the other ten games. Punjab scored only eight points that season. It was also the first season when Chennai Super Kings won its first IPL trophy.
Delhi Daredevils who are now called Delhi Capitals finished at the bottom of the IPL table in 2011. Delhi Daredevils accumulated nine points in 14 matches, winning four and losing nine games.
Now defunct team Pune Warriors India also finished with the same statistics in 2010, but their run-rate was slightly better, and therefore, they managed to escape the embarrassment and finished in the ninth position. It was also the year when Chennai successfully defended its title and won its second consecutive trophy.
One of the worst-performing teams in IPL history, the now-defunct Pune Warriors India, finished at the bottom of the IPL table in 2012. They saved themselves in 2011, but in 2012, the team only won four matches out of 16, whereas the remaining 12 were lost—Warriors only scored eight points. On the other hand, 2012 was also the year when IPL found a new champion—Kolkata Knight Riders.
The second IPL team that legendary Sourav Ganguly led but ended up on the humiliating end
In 2013, Delhi Daredevils became the first team to hit the bottom low twice. The team scored only six points out of 16 matches, losing 13 and winning only three. Moving on to champions of the season, Mumbai Indians lifted the IPL trophy.
The following year, in 2014, Delhi Daredevils once again wore the crown of embarrassment for finishing at the bottom of the league—the team’s third time since the tourney’s inception in 2008. One of the poorest seasons for Delhi, the team scored only four points out of 14 matches, winning two and losing the remaining 12. That season, KKR won its second title.
