IPL 2019 report card for the 8 teams

The 12th season of the IPL is done and dusted. Here's a quick summary of the performances of the eight teams.

Chennai Super Kings

It is often said, "There are seven teams in the IPL, battling to meet CSK in the final." This time was no different as Stephen Fleming stuck to his core team, got the best out of players by assigning them roles and won the precious final over moments.

MS Dhoni shepherded the side wonderfully, both with the bat and in the field. They lost their fourth trophy by a single run but no one can take the pride away from the Men in Yellow.

Delhi Capitals

The sky's the limit for a revitalised Delhi outfit with a pool of energetic young players, led by a rather inexperienced captain in Shreyas Iyer. The think tank has two great former captains in Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly.

The team played a fearless brand of cricket, found a bowling hero in Kagiso Rabada and rediscovered the winning habit. Dhawan, Shaw, Iyer and Pant - all crossed the 400-run mark. The future is bright for this franchise.

Kings XI Punjab

Punjab did what they've been doing for the past couple of seasons - start brightly and then move into a slump.

KL Rahul and Chris Gayle were impressive but the middle order offered nothing in the slog overs. Pace bowling at the death was a concern as well for a side that made at least two changes every game.

This team never did find its best playing XI. We hope they do next year because the unit shows a lot of promise.

Kolkata Knight Riders

According to evidence from this edition, KKR is synonymous with Andre Russell. The league's Most Valuable Player was able to turn matches around with both bat and ball. The team, however, desperately needed more match-winners.

They needed a quality foreign strike bowler. Injury setbacks prior to the start of the season did not help. KKR could have qualified for the play-offs on the final day of the group stage, but they squandered the opportunity.

Mumbai Indians

Strong on paper. Relentless on the field. Lethal on their day.

From the opening combination, middle-order flexibility and Hardik Pandya's powerful impact to the experience of Lasith Malinga and Jasprit Bumrah and the emergence of Rahul Chahar, MI ticked all the boxes this season.

They certainly played like champions. The last over of the final against CSK was a testament to this.

Rajasthan Royals

RR were the unluckiest side in the IPL. Their first three encounters were last-over thrillers, which could have gone either way. The team then seemed to lose its morale. And a change in captaincy steadied the ship to an extent.

Steve Smith's captaincy improved both his and Ajinkya Rahane's batting, but in the end, RR couldn't string wins together. Shreyas Gopal deserves a special mention for his wicket-taking ability and never-say-die attitude.

Royal Challengers Bangalore

RCB revamped their squad ahead of the season, snapping up many promising talents. However, the overdependence on Virat Kohli and AB de Villiers continued. Couple that with horrendous death bowling and it's not surprising that they wound up with the wooden spoon.

Sunrisers Hyderabad

SRH's season was held together by their openers - David Warner and Jonny Bairstow. They formed the IPL's most dangerous opening pair of all time.

Manish Pandey did find his feet at no. 3 towards the latter stages of the tournament, but by then, SRH had lost their way. They couldn't reproduce the all-round performances of last year and the bowlers, in particular, failed to deliver.