IPL Format 2020

India Premier League is one of the most popular T20 league in the world. Players from all over the world wish to play this league. Before the start of IPL, the T20 format was new to players. When IPL was inaugurated in 2008, there were question marks raised on the format and how ODI and test players will adapt to this new format? The inaugural match of IPL season 1 had set the tone for the league courtesy Brendon McCullum’s 158 runs against Royal Challengers Banglore.

How are the matches played in IPL? Home/Away venues?

IPL is played in a round-robin format. All eight teams face-off each other twice. Each team plays 14 matches. Seven matches are played at the home venue and seven matches are played away from home. Usually, home venues are based on the team’s city like Chennai Super King’s home venue is Chennai, Royal Challengers Banglore is Bengaluru, etc. But this time IPL has been shifted to UAE, hence all teams can decide their own home whether Abu Dhabi, Dubai, or Sharjah.

Points system and Play-off qualification criteria

Teams will play all their 14 matches. Teams will get 2 points for victory and 0 points for defeat. If a game gets washed out due to rain reason then both teams will get one point each.

After playing all 14 matches, teams will acquire some points based on their wins and losses. The team with most no of the points will be in the number one position, and the team with the least number of points will be down the table at number eight. Hence teams will be ranked according to the descending order of their points. The top 4 teams will qualify for the play-offs.

What happens if the teams end up in the same number of points? What is the qualification criteria of Play-offs for those team?

If two teams end up in the same number of points, then the team with the better net-rate will automatically qualify. The net-rate is calculated based on the margin win, for example, Team A or B wins by four wickets or 24 runs. The higher the margin the better the run-rate. Note that the net-run rate also depends on losing margin too, i.e the net-run rate decrease if the teams lose a match depending on the margin of defeat.

Super Over

A super over is played when two teams end up scoring the same number of runs in their 20 overs quota. In that case, a super over comprising one over each is played between the two teams. The team batting second will bat first in the super over. Teams have to choose 3 batsmen, one bowler and the rest will be the fielders. The batting team will get only 6 balls and two wickets in hand. The team which scores the maximum runs will be the winner of the match.

What if Super Over also is tied?

In that case, the team which had hit the most number of boundaries in their 20 over innings will be declared the winner.

What is the system of Play-offs?

There are four matches played in the qualifiers, they are:

1. Qualifier 1: Top two teams in the points table will face-off in the qualifier. These two teams will also have an advantage. The winner of the Qualifier will go straight to Final. The loser of the Qualifier 1 will get another chance to stay in the tournament and play the qualifier 2.
2. Eliminator: The 3rd and 4th positioned teams will face off in Eliminator. It will be a knock-out match. The winner will go the qualifier 2 and loser will be knocked out of the tournament.
3. Qualifier 2: The loser of qualifier 1 and the winner of eliminator 2 will face-off in qualifier 2. This is also a knock-out match. The winner will go straight to the final and loser will be knocked out of the tournament.
4. Final: The Winner of qualifier 1 and qualifier 2 will face-off in final. The winner of the match will win the IPL title and the loser will be the runner-up.

When and Where can you watch the IPL matches?

IPL usually is played in April-May months, but this  COVID-19 pandemic has pushed the tournament to September 19 to October 10.

The matches will be played in Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, and Dubai.

You can watch the match on the star sports network or live-stream it on Disney+ Hotstar app. You might need to subscribe to a VIP or premium account to stream the matches.

The evening matches will start from 7:30 PM IST, and day matches will start from 3:30 PM IST.