20 IPL Facts That Can Never Be Broken (Every One Is a First)

Records in the IPL fall every April. These don’t. Every fact below is a “first” — the first ball, the first wicket, the first title, the first season played in another country — and a first can never be taken away. Twenty IPL facts that will be exactly as true in 2050 as they are today, plus one famous “first” that never actually happened.

Image courtesy iplt20.com. The league began as an experiment on 18 April 2008.

The five that can never be broken

158*Brendon McCullum’s score in the very first IPL match — a century in game one, before anyone knew what the league would become.

Leg byeThe first run in IPL history came off Sourav Ganguly’s pad, not his bat — from Praveen Kumar’s first ball.

Cheapest championRajasthan Royals, bought for US$67 million (the lowest franchise price), won the first title in 2008.

2009The only season ever played entirely outside India — all 59 matches in South Africa, because of general elections at home.

2010The IPL became the first sporting event in the world streamed live and free on YouTube.

20 IPL firsts that will stand forever

Match one: 18 April 2008, Bengaluru

1. First ball: bowled by Praveen Kumar of Royal Challengers Bangalore to Sourav Ganguly of Kolkata Knight Riders.
2. First run: a leg bye off that first ball — Ganguly got the IPL’s first run without touching it with the bat.
3. First run off the bat, first four and first six: all Brendon McCullum, all off Zaheer Khan, inside the first two overs.
4. First wicket: Zaheer Khan, with Ganguly edging to slip in the sixth over.
5. First century — and the first 150: McCullum’s 158 not out off 73 balls, with 13 sixes. It stayed the highest IPL score for five years.
6. First win: KKR by 140 runs — still one of the biggest margins the league has seen.

Season one: 2008

7. First hat-trick: Lakshmipathy Balaji for Chennai Super Kings against Kings XI Punjab — Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla and VRV Singh in three balls.
8. First Orange Cap: Shaun Marsh, an uncapped Australian nobody had heard of, with 616 runs for Punjab.
9. First Purple Cap: Sohail Tanvir of Pakistan, with 22 wickets for Rajasthan — in the only season Pakistani players were allowed to take part.
10. First champions: Rajasthan Royals, the cheapest franchise, captained by a 38-year-old Shane Warne, beating CSK off the last ball of the final.
11. First Indian Orange Cap: Sachin Tendulkar in 2010, with 618 runs for Mumbai Indians — the only Orange Cap of his career.

Firsts for the league

12. First Super Over: 23 April 2009, Cape Town — Rajasthan Royals beat KKR, with Yusuf Pathan finishing it off Ajantha Mendis.
13. First season abroad: 2009, entirely in South Africa; 2014 was the first split season, opening in the UAE.
14. First live stream on YouTube: 2010 — the first major sporting event anywhere to be shown free on the platform.
15. First team to defend the title: Chennai Super Kings, champions in 2010 and 2011.
16. First season without spectators: 2020, played entirely in the UAE behind closed doors during the pandemic.
17. First season suspended mid-way: 2021, halted in May after COVID cases in team bubbles and finished in the UAE in September.
18. First ten-team season: 2022, when Gujarat Titans and Lucknow Super Giants joined — and Gujarat won the title in their very first season.
19. First Impact Player substitution: 2023, the season tactical substitutes were introduced — the same year the Women’s Premier League played its first match.
20. First USA cricketer signed: fast bowler Ali Khan, by KKR in 2020 — though injury meant he never bowled a ball (see below).

Myth busters

One IPL “first” that never happened — and one that gets the credit wrong

✗Ali Khan was the first American to play in the IPL.
He was the first USA cricketer signed, but he was injured before playing a match. The first American national to actually play was Rusty Theron, who took US citizenship after his IPL career.

✗Ganguly scored the first IPL run.
He was credited with it, but it was a leg bye — the first run off a bat belongs to McCullum.

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Sources: CricTracker – all the firsts from the first IPL match · Sportskeeda – IPL firsts · ESPNcricinfo – Ali Khan joins KKR · The Quint – Ali Khan ruled out · afaqs – IPL on YouTube, 2010

Last fact-checked: October 2026.