However, Djokovic, five years Federer’s junior, stepped on the gas and raced away to the title.Sunday’s final was the pair’s 40th career meeting and 12th in the Grand Slams.Djokovic was playing in his 17th major final compared to Federer’s 26th.But despite Federer’s majestic triumph over Andy Murray in the semi-finals, which suggested he was not ready for the retirement home just yet, Sunday’s reality check looks certain to leave the Swiss thwarted in his quest to add to his record 17 Grand Slam title collection.In front of a Royal Box crammed with tennis and Hollywood A-listers, including Bjorn Borg, Rod Laver, Benedict Cumberbatch, Hugh Grant and Bradley Cooper, Federer was in the early ascendancy.He broke for a 4-2 lead but Djokovic hit straight back condemning the Swiss to just his second lost service game in 94 served up at the tournament.Federer then saw two set points disappear in the 12th game, both saved courtesy of back-to-back 120mph serves.

Djokovic capitalised on his escape, racing through the tiebreaker with six consecutive points to claim the opener when Federer served up a double fault.The Serb committed just three unforced errors in the first set, a key statistic in what would always be a tight encounter.By contrast, Federer hit 11, the same as he suffered throughout his semi-final win over Murray.Federer wasted two break points in the fifth and 11th games of the second set having saved a first set point in the 10th.That paved the way for a titanic tiebreak where the 33-year-old saved six more set points before levelling the final on his second set point.At 12/10, it was the longest tiebreak in a Wimbledon final since 2000 when Pat Rafter faced Pete Sampras with the set taking 65 gripping minutes to complete.To his credit, Djokovic swiftly recovered, breaking for a 2-1 lead in the third set which became 3-2 when rain forced them off for 20 minutes.The world number one confidently wrapped up the set 6-4 with just two unforced errors even if the brief stoppage had dampened the fireworks of the second set.The title was his on the stroke of the third hour with a sweeping forehand into an open court.As has become the Serb’s tradition, he celebrated by pulling out a piece of Centre Court grass and eating it.

The Super Kings are the most successful team in the IPLand have won the title twice in succession (2010 and 2011).In 2010, they became the first Indian team to win the Champions League Twenty20 and repeated the feat in 2014. The leading run-scorer of the team is Suresh Raina, while the leading wicket-taker is Ravichandran Ashwin. The brand value of the Super Kings in 2012 was estimated at US$75.13 million, making them the most valuable franchise in the IPL.

Perforamance :

• Q = Qualified; DNQ = Did Not Qualify; TBD = To Be Decided

Current team:

No.	Name	Nat.	Birth date	Batting style	Bowling style	Notes
Batsmen
3	Suresh Raina		27 November 1986 (age 28)	Left-handed	Right-arm off break	Vice-captain
13	Francois du Plessis		13 July 1984 (age 30)	Right-handed	Right-arm leg break	Overseas
5	Baba Aparajith		8 July 1994 (age 20)	Right-handed	Right-arm off break
50	Dwayne Smith		12 April 1983 (age 31)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium-fast	Overseas
48	Michael Hussey		27 May 1975 (age 39)	Left-handed	Right-arm medium	Overseas
	Ankush Bains		6 December 1995 (age 19)	Right-handed
	Eklavya Dwivedi		22 July 1988 (age 26)	Right-handed
All-rounders
8	Ravindra Jadeja		6 December 1988 (age 26)	Left-handed	Slow left-arm orthodox
12	Mithun Manhas		12 October 1979 (age 35)	Right-handed	Right-arm off break
47	Dwayne Bravo		7 October 1983 (age 31)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium-fast	Overseas
	Irfan Pathan		27 October 1984 (age 30)	Left-handed	Left-arm medium
	Andrew Tye		12 December 1986 (age 28)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium-fast	Overseas
Wicket-keepers
7	Mahendra Singh Dhoni		7 July 1981 (age 33)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium	Captain
42	Brendon McCullum		27 September 1981 (age 33)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium	Overseas/Occasional Wicket-Keeper
Bowlers
99	Ravichandran Ashwin		17 September 1986 (age 28)	Right-handed	Right-arm off break
64	Ashish Nehra		30 April 1979 (age 35)	Right-handed	Left-arm medium-fast
18	Mohit Sharma		18 September 1988 (age 26)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium-fast
6	Pawan Negi		6 January 1993 (age 22)	Left-handed	Slow left-arm orthodox
15	Ishwar Pandey		15 August 1989 (age 25)	Right-handed	Right-arm medium-fast
21	Matt Henry		14 December 1991 (age 23)	Right-handed	Right-arm fast-medium	Overseas
22	Ronit More		11 February 1992 (age 23)	Right-handed	Right arm medium-fast
77	Samuel Badree		9 March 1981 (age 34)	Right-handed	Right-arm leg break	Overseas
	Rahul Sharma		30 September 1986 (age 28)	Right-handed	Right-arm leg break googly
	Kyle Abbott		18 June 1987 (age 27)	Right-handed	Right-arm fast-medium	Overseas
	Pratyush Singh		4 September 1994 (age 20)	Right-handed	Right-arm leg break googly

First season

The first season of IPL was sponsored by DLF. The inaugural season of the tournament took place from 18 April – 1 June 2008. The group stages featured eight teams playing against each other, twice at home and once away basis, with the top four progressing to the semi-finals.

The final was played in DY Patil Stadium, Nerul, Navi Mumbai. The first winner of the tournament was Rajasthan Royals, who beat Chennai Super Kings in a close encounter match that went down to the last ball. Rajasthan Royals’ Shane Watson was named player of the tournament.

Second season

The 2009 Indian Premier League season, also known as IPL 2, was hosted in South Africa because of the general elections in India and was played for 37 days from 18 April – 24 May 2009. Deccan Chargers beat Royal Challengers Bangalore in the final to take the title (these two were placed 8th and 7th respectively in the standings of previous season).

Third season

The third season returned to India and it was the first IPL tournament that was broadcast live on YouTube. The final four matches of the tournament were screened in 3D across theatres in India. The Chennai Super Kings defeated the Mumbai Indians in the finals to win their first title.

Fourth season

In 2011, two new teams, Pune Warriors India (PWI) from Pune and Kochi Tuskers Kerala (KTK) from Kochi made their debut in IPL 4. However, the bid for the Kochi franchise turned controversial resulting in the resignation of minister, Shashi Tharoor from the Central Government. Later Lalit Modi was also removed from IPL chairmanship by BCCI. On 5 December 2010, it was confirmed that Kochi will take part in the fourth season of IPL.

With the addition of 2 teams, namely Sahara’s Pune Warriors India and the Kochi Tuskers Kerala, the number of franchises increased from 8 to 10. The format was changed to each team playing 5 other teams in a home-away format. Of the remaining, a team would play 2 at home and 2 away matches. Thus each team played a total of 14 matches. The season ran from 8 April to 28 May 2011.

The IPL was scheduled just 7 days after India Won the Historic 2011 Cricket World Cup on April 1, 2011 . The Chennai Super Kings won their second consecutive title after defeating the Royal Challengers Bangalore by 58 runs in the final.

The Kochi Tuskers Kerala withdrew at the end of this IPL season.

Fifth season

The fifth season featured nine teams after the termination of the Kochi franchise. The auction of the players was held on 4 February 2012. Maximum number of players in each squad was increased from 30 to 33. A total of 76 matches were played from 4 April to 27 May. The Delhi Daredevils, the Kolkata Knight Riders, the Mumbai Indians and the Chennai Super Kings qualified for the playoffs. The final was hosted by Chennai on 27 May, where the Chennai Super Kings played against the Kolkata Knight Riders. The Kolkata Knight Riders won the match by 5 wickets.

This edition of the IPL was the most competitive with 14 matches producing results in the very last over, and a couple in the last ball. Towards the end of the league, it encountered many hurdles including a spot fixing case, which allegedly included five players caught on a sting operation carried by a news channel.

Sixth season

Pepsi replaced DLF as the title sponsor. Nine teams have participated in the sixth season. The sixth season took place 3 April – 26 May 2013. Deccan Chargers franchise was terminated by the IPL governing council which was later replaced by Sunrisers Hyderabad owned by Sun Group.

Chennai Super Kings, Mumbai Indians, Rajasthan Royals and Sunrisers Hyderabad were the four teams in the league stage to qualify for the playoffs. Rajasthan Royals defeated Sunrisers Hyderabad by 4 wickets in the eliminator played at Feroz Shah Kotla in New Delhi. Mumbai Indians defeated Rajasthan Royals in the second qualifier and faced Chennai Super Kings in the Final. Mumbai Indians defeated Chennai Super Kings by 23 runs for their first title win. Shane Watson was named man of the tournament. Sachin Tendulkar announced Retirement from IPL after Mumbai Indians Won the tournament

Pune Warriors India team was dissolved on the same day.

Seventh season

The league ran 16 April – 1 June 2014 and due to security demands for the 2014 Lok Sabha Elections the early matches were played in the UAE, before the seventh edition of Indian Premier League returned to India for the remainder of the tournament. As Pune Warriors India had been dissolved, this left 8 team participating in the 2014 season.

The auction of players for the seventh season of IPL took place on 13 and 15 February 2014 in Bangalore. For the second time after 2011 IPL teams were allowed to retain up to 5 players. 7 teams retained at least 2 players from the previous squad.

Kings XI Punjab, Kolkata Knight Riders, Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians were the four teams that made it to the playoffs. Kolkata Knight Riders defeated Kings XI Punjab by 28 runs in first qualifier to reach the final. Chennai Super Kings faced Kings XI Punjab in the second qualifier after defeating Mumbai Indians by 7 wickets in the eliminator, Kings XI Punjab defeated them by 24 runs to reach the finals. In the finals held on 1 June,Kolkata Knight Riders beat Kings XI Punjab by 3 wickets, to become the winner of IPL 2014, their second IPL victory. The Orange cap was won by Kolkata Knight Riders’s Robin Uthappa & the Purple cap was won by Chennai Super King’s Mohit Sharma. Glenn Maxwell was named Man of the Tournament. This was the first IPL tournament where the winner of the Orange cap represented the team winning the tournament.

Eighth season

The eighth season is scheduled to start on 8 April 2015 and run till 24 May 2015. There has been a fresh auction of players among teams. This season had to be adjusted around a week late than every year because of the tight scheduling of teams due to the 2015 Cricket World Cup.

ICC has charged the home paceman Anderson for pushing and abusing Jadeja during the lunch break on the second day of first Test. If found guilty he could miss at least two and up to four Tests or upto 8 ODIs, something that the hosts will not desire under any circumstances.For India, meanwhile, perhaps this puts to rest the question of playing two spinners. At Trent Bridge, the 198-run world-record 10th wicket stand between Anderson and Joe Root notwithstanding, the Indian bowlers gave a fairly good account of themselves.

Indian skipper MS Dhoni likes to think of international cricket as a process and in that respect his inexperienced bowling attack did graduate from the way they bowled in the two practice games at Leicester and Derbyshire.Inadvertently it means a toss-up between R Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja. The former had a lengthy bowling spell in the nets, while the latter batted, bowled and took slip-catching practice, going through a proper pre-match work-out.

This Indian team management doesn`t tinker around with its combination too much, certainly not when they have come away from the first Test with the series still poised nil-nil.There is every reason to expect that Ashwin will continue to sit out with Jadeja continuing in the role of the lone spinner. Whether their roles should be switched is a debate for another day, perhaps the end of this second Test match.