IPL 2015: Ranking the Top 16 Moments from Indian Premier League

The 2015 Indian Premier League season reached its conclusion on Sunday, as the Mumbai Indians claimed an emphatic 41-run victory over the Chennai Super Kings in the tournament's final at Eden Gardens. 

Led by blistering innings from Lendl Simmons, Rohit Sharma and Kieron Pollard, Mumbai's imposing total of 202 for five proved far too steep for CSK, seeing the men in blue claim the franchise's second title in three seasons. 

Full of savage strikes and sublime pieces of fielding, Sunday's finale was a fitting end to this year's tournament, the IPL once again providing a level of entertainment that is unmatched in the Twenty20 world. 

Below, we relive the 2015 edition's finest moments, ranking a top 16 that features nail-biting finishes, phenomenal catches, notable celebrations and much more. 

16. Dinesh Karthik's One-Hander

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RT @manjit435: @RelianceMobile Dinesh Karthik awsm diving catch behind the stumps #JeetPakkiHai #Contest pic.twitter.com/TPZRBJWOyA

— giveaway welcome (@WelcomeGiveaway) May 23, 2015"

The IPL has changed batting. Forever. Bowling, too. But the competition, and the Twenty20 format, is having a profound effect on wicketkeeping as well. 

Indeed, the advent of shots such as the scoop and reverse sweep has meant that keepers must be able to cover considerably more ground. Like for other fielders, the extent to which a keeper has to anticipate has been heightened.

In Match 22, Dinesh Karthik produced a fine example. When James Faulkner attempted to find the fine-leg boundary with a paddle sweep off Harshal Patel, the keeper moved superbly to his left before plucking a sensational, diving catch. 

15. Albie Morkel's Near-Miss

The Chennai Super Kings, normally so consistent, had been wasteful. Their powerful batting line-up had just never got going, as Dwayne Smith top-scored with only 34 against the struggling Delhi Daredevils. 

But in response, Delhi crumbled, falling to 39 for three and then to 106 for six. Watching the collapse around him, Albie Morkel was all that stood in the way of an easy CSK win. 

Scrapping, fighting, the South African took the game to the final over. It looked unlikely, with 19 to get, but victory was still possible. 

Four. One. Wicket. Six. Two. From the final ball of Dwayne Bravo's over, Morkel needed six. 

His final blow? A flat-bat club over cover. That landed six feet short of the rope. 

14. Chris Gayle or Cristiano Ronaldo?

You know the celebration, the Cristiano Ronaldo one: the jump, the spin, the arms thrusted out.

Well, Chris Gayle obvious watches the Real Madrid star. After flicking Mitchell Johnson to the boundary to bring up a blistering century in just 46 balls, the West Indian delighted the crowd at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore by mimicking the Portuguese.

Gayle is the ultimate entertainer.  

13. Faf du Plessis' Spectacular Catch

Though Faf du Plessis has long been recognised as a fine international player, he's always felt unremarkable. Effective, reliable and efficient, but unremarkable. 

But then, when you think about, he actually is remarkable. It's all a strange contradiction. 

In the last couple of seasons in the IPL, the South African has put together a string of stunning exploits, with athletic catches being a distinct feature. And in the 20th match of this year's edition, he was at it again.

When Manvinder Bisla launched Ashish Nehra high into the night sky, it seemed certain the ball would land safely beyond Du Plessis at mid-off. But no. Charging back to make ground, the CSK man then flung himself backward, claiming a sublime catch to halt Royal Challengers Bangalore's hot start.  

12. Dwayne Bravo's Athletic Grab

Bravo was just made for Twenty20 cricket. He's everything the IPL is and strives to be. 

An all-rounder, a staggering athlete and an entertainer, the West Indian can do it all. But it's been in the outfield where his finest moments have come this season. 

Indeed, in CSK's low-scoring contest with the Kolkata Knight Riders in Match 28, Bravo pulled off a breathtaking grab to dismiss Suryakumar Yadav, storming in from the boundary to meet the right-hander's skied pull shot before diving forward at full stretch and taking the catch one-handed just inches above the ground. 

11. Dwayne Bravo Stuns Virat Kohli

Yep, Bravo again. He's irrepressible.

On this occasion, yet another stunning piece of athleticism from the West Indian brought about Virat Kohli's demise. 

When the Indian superstar struck Bravo's delivery back at him, Bravo launched high to his right, and in one action, threw the stumps down, catching Kohli short of his ground in the most sensational fashion. 

10. Mayank Agarwal's Game-Changing Stop 

In time, when the 2015 IPL season is reviewed, Mayank Agarwal's game-changing stop might be forgotten. After all, it wasn't a catch. It doesn't appear on the scorecard. It didn't count as any sort of stat.

But what it did do was win a game for the Delhi Daredevils. And in spectacular style.

In the final over, the Sunrisers needed seven runs from two balls for victory. Facing Nathan Coulter-Nile, Karn Sharma launched a drive toward the point boundary—a strike that appeared certain to clear the rope.

But racing back and to his right, Agarwal leapt high into the air, soaring above the boundary rope to knock Sharma's shot back into the field of play, turning a likely six into a two and pushing his team to a dramatic triumph.

9. The Super Over

Axar Patel had almost done it. With five runs needed by Kings XI Punjab from the last delivery, the left-hander's lofted square-drive fell just a yard short of the boundary in what would have been a dramatic finish itself. 

Instead, Patel's four tied the game, sending his team's clash with the Rajasthan Royals to a deciding super over. Madness then ensued. 

David Miller missed a full toss and was trapped from the first ball as Kings XI batted first. Then Shaun Marsh thumped three straight boundaries, before being bizarrely run out after an obvious leg-before-wicket appeal had been turned down. 

Rajasthan needed 16 to win. Johnson then removed Shane Watson's off-stump, before a no-ball was thumped for four by Steven Smith. Neither team, it seemed, could keep their cool. But when James Faulkner was smartly run out by Wriddhiman Saha, the madness eventually came to a close as the Kings XI claimed a thrilling victory. 

8. Tim Southee's Last-Ball Four

It bad been 10 straight defeats for the Delhi Daredevils, but Match 6 of this year's tournament looked ready to snap the streak.

Batting first, Delhi had crunched 184 for three against the Rajasthan Royals and looked to be cruising when Rajasthan's chase slumped to 78 for four. 

But some lusty hitting from Deepak Hooda, the youngest player in the tournament, gave the Royals a chance, and 12 runs were needed from the final over. 

From the first three deliveries over the finale, just four runs came, as Angelo Mathews produced a trio of yorkers. Then Chris Morris found the boundary with a paddle sweep, before getting a single from the penultimate delivery. 

One ball left, three runs needed. Tim Southee on strike, Mathews needing another yorker. And he went for it, but instead delivered a low full toss, Southee crunching it through cover for four to deliver a remarkable victory that had come from nowhere. 

7. Mandeep Singh's Ferocious Finish

At the top of the RCB line-up all season stood Gayle, Kohli and AB de Villiers. Three stars. Three batting powerhouses. Essentially, a trio that was basically the team. 

But Mandeep Singh was keen to prove that others could win games for RCB, too. And his chance came against the Kolkata Knight Riders. 

In a rain-shortened match, RCB needed to chase down 112 in 10 overs. Gayle and Kohli landed the early blows, but a different hero was needed when both men (and De Villiers) departed. 

Enter Singh. 

In the seventh over, the right-hander's three boundaries helped to reduce the equation from 51 needed from 24 balls to 33 from 18. In the penultimate over, two more boundaries left 13 required from six. 

His next move? Two, six, six. 

Emphatic.  

6. Faf du Plessis' Incredible Run Out

A diving, back-handed flick run out? Check.

That man, Du Plessis, at it again.

5. Dwayne Bravo's Boundary-Line Stunner

Are you getting sick of Bravo yet? Of course you aren't.

Try this one on for size.

4. David Warner's Stray Boot; Virat Kohli's Delight

Did RCB do a rain dance? Everywhere they went this season, the rain seemed to go with them. They played a succession of shortened matches.

Undoubtedly the most thrilling was RCB's clash with Sunrisers Hyderabad, when a game that had initially been reduced to 11 overs was then shortened to just six.

For Kohli's men, it would be a mad dash: 81 needed from 36 balls. And when the last over arrived, they needed 13.

Two straight fours from Kohli from the third and fourth balls then reduced the equation to four from two. Penultimate delivery: Bhuvneshwar Kumar ran in, Kohli thrashed hard, sending a lofted drive down the ground to where David Warner was placed.

The Australian claimed the catch, appearing to swing the contest, but as he did, he trod on the boundary rope to award Kohli a six and RCB the match.

3. Tim Southee and Karun Nair's Two-Man Catch

In last season's edition of the IPL, we watched in amazement as Kieron Pollard showcased the two-part catch. This year, Tim Southee and Karun Nair gave us the two-man catch. 

It's something we'd seen in England last summer, when Aaron Finch and Adam Lyth combined twice to pull off extraordinary grabs—one player diving to claim the catch, before rapidly throwing it to a supporting team-mate as he flies over the boundary rope. 

And that's exactly what Southee and Nair pulled off against the Kings XI Punjab, the New Zealander plucking the ball out of the air with one hand before flicking it back to Nair—who also grabbed it one-handed. 

2. Kieron Pollard's Silent Treatment

When umpires warned Pollard to ease up on the verbals directed at fellow West Indian Chris Gayle during the Mumbai Indians' clash with RCB, the towering all-rounder didn't appear to be too pleased.  

For Pollard, it was all part of the game; the contest was tense; he wanted to assert himself. But he was instructed to stop anyway. 

His response?

He ran past Gayle at the change of ends with tape stuck across his mouth. 

1. Mumbai Lift the Trophy 

After six games, Mumbai's record stood at one win and five losses. They didn't seem capable of defending targets. Run chases looked beyond them. And their hopes of merely reaching the play-offs appeared dead and buried.

Exactly one month later, they stood atop the podium, trophy in hand after a massive 41-run victory over CSK in the tournament's final.  

A truly extraordinary turnaround.