The2013 Indian Premier League season (abbreviated asIPL 6 orPepsi IPL 2013) was the sixth season of theIndian Premier League, established by theBoard of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) in 2007. The tournament featured nine teams and was held from 3 April to 26 May 2013.^[1] The opening ceremony was held at theSalt Lake Stadium inKolkata on 2 April 2013. This was the first season withPepsiCo as the title sponsor. TheKolkata Knight Riders were the defending champions, having won the2012 season. Aspot fixing case was revealed byDelhi Police, leading to arrest of three cricketers fromRajasthan Royals and other persons.Mumbai Indians won the tournament for the first time, defeatingChennai Super Kings in thefinal by 23 runs.^[2][3]

PepsiCo replacedDLF Ltd as the title sponsor starting with the 2013 season. DLF did not renew their contract after their initial five-year contract, for₹ 2.50 billion, ended with the previous season. PepsiCo's contract is₹ 3968 million for five years, ending with the 2017 season.^[4][5] In response to questions about the higher sponsorship costs compared to DLF's, a representative of PepsiCo said, "Our estimate is that we will get five to six times the value of the money we paid." However, Brand Finance had assessed the IPL's brand value to have fallen from $4.1 billion in 2010 to $2.9 billion in 2012, attributed to the decline in television ratings over the two years.^[6]

Deccan Chargers, champions of the2009 Indian Premier League, became the second team to be terminated from the IPL afterKochi Tuskers Kerala. The owners failed to save the team after several attempts were made with theBombay High Court andSupreme Court of India. Immediately after the Chargers' termination, the BCCI invited bidders for a replacement team also based inHyderabad. It was announced on 25 October 2012 thatSun TV Network won the bid at₹ 850.5 million per year.^[7] The new team was named theSunrisers Hyderabad.^[8]

In October 2012, the teams were allowed to release any number of their players from their contracts to reduce their player costs. The released players would have the option of entering the auction. The players' auction was held on 3 February 2013,^[9] where 37 players were sold.^[10]

Availability of Bangladeshi players was put in doubt when theBangladesh Cricket Board considered not issuing the players with theNo Objection Certificates they needed to participate in the tournament. Their deliberation was due to the tournament's dates clashing with theBangladesh tour of Zimbabwe.^[11] Regardless, both affected players,Shakib Al Hasan andTamim Iqbal, missed the start of the tournament due to injury.

Despite the progress on the restoration ofcricketing relations between India and Pakistan after thePakistan national cricket team toured India in December 2012 and January 2013, no Pakistani players were included in the auction.^[12][13] Several South Africans missed the start of the tournament to play in the knockout stage of theRam Slam T20 Challenge.^[14] Two New Zealand players were released early by their teams to join theNew Zealand tour of England. Both players were not performing for their teams.^[15]Sri Lanka Cricket made a similar request to allow some of their players to join their preparations for theICC Champions Trophy.^[16]

Shortly before the start of the season, the IPL governing council ruled that Sri Lankan cricketers and match officials will not participate in any matches held inChennai.^[17] This was a result of thegrowing political tensions in Tamil Nadu concerning theethnic conflict between theSinhalese andSri Lankan Tamils.^[18] The anti-Sinhalaese sentiments from the people ofTamil Nadu raised security concerns for Sri Lankan involvement. The decision was made afterJayalalithaa, the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, wrote to thePrime Minister of India requesting the ban.^[19]

Other than theChennai Super Kings, the franchises were not in support of the decision as they believed it offered Chennai an added advantage in their home matches. Chennai's Sri Lankan players hold secondary positions in their team while some Sri Lankans in other teams play key roles and their absence in those matches would affect their team strategies. Another concern was with how the decision did not follow the precedence of moving the matches to a different venue.^[20] However, the playoff matches originally scheduled to be held in Chennai were later relocated to Delhi.^[21]

The opening ceremony was held at the largest stadium in India, and the secondlargest stadium in the world by capacity, theSalt Lake Stadium or Yuva Bharati Krirangan inKolkata, on 2 April 2013. All nine teams, led by their captains, took the "MCC Spirit of Cricket" pledge.Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister ofWest Bengal, was present at the ceremony. It featured live performances of American rapperPitbull and Indian film starsShah Rukh Khan,Katrina Kaif andDeepika Padukone.^[22][23][24]

The season began on 3 April with the defending champions theKolkata Knight Riders defeating theDelhi Daredevils; Kolkata and Australian quickBrett Lee notably getting a wicket off the first ball of the tournament, gettingUnmukt Chand out.^[25] Kolkata would then struggle and lose five of their next six matches due to good batting performances only coming from captainGautam Gambhir andEoin Morgan.^[26] Delhi, who topped the group stage in 2012, had a six-match losing streak due to batting failures apart from three half-centuries from captainMahela Jayawardene andDavid Warner.^[27] Both Delhi and Kolkata were positioned at the bottom of the points table for the first half of the season.

Two-time runners-up theRoyal Challengers Bangalore won six of their first eight matches with a six-of-six home record. This was credited to good death-over bowling fromVinay Kumar and prolific and quick run-scoring from captainVirat Kohli,Chris Gayle andAB de Villiers. This included Gayle's score of 175 not out, the highest in Twenty20 cricket.^[28] However, their performances were fluctuant. Included was a 130-run victory, twoSuper Overs and two other matches involving a tight finish.^[29] Two-time champions theChennai Super Kings were similarly dominant, with good batting from captainMahendra Singh Dhoni,Michael Hussey andSuresh Raina and an all-round bowling attack.^[30] They came up with an IPL record-equalling seven-match winning streak, which took them to the top of the points table.^[31]

TheMumbai Indians, who made playoff-stage appearances in each of the past three years, were inconsistent with both batting and bowling. Good batting performances fromDinesh Karthik,Rohit Sharma andKieron Pollard put Mumbai at the middle of the points table halfway through the season.^[32] TheSunrisers Hyderabad produced results contrary to the poor performance last season by their predecessors theDeccan Chargers. With no stand-out individual batting performances, Hyderabad managed to win five of their first seven matches. Their strength was in their strong and economical bowling from an attack centred aroundDale Steyn andAmit Mishra. Mishra got the secondhat-trick of the season, becoming the first to achieve three IPL hat-tricks.^[33]

Also at the middle of the points table was theRajasthan Royals. They won matches with cohesive batting and bowling where different players delivered match-winning contributions.Shane Watson produced scores of 101 and 98 not out whileJames Faulkner was briefly the season's top wicket-taker after taking 5 for 20.^[34] ThePune Warriors India and theKings XI Punjab continue their form from 2012. Pune won two matches from eight with significant contributions coming only fromAaron Finch,Steve Smith andBhuvneshwar Kumar.^[35] Punjab had average performances with poor contributions from their international players and a dependency on their less-accomplished local players.

In the second half of the season, Chennai continued to be dominant and held their number-one position on the points table while Mumbai, Rajasthan, Bangalore and Hyderabad were evenly matched as they switched between the positions of second to fifth. Mumbai excelled to win seven out of eight matches with improved bowling performances aroundMitchell Johnson and Pollard producing an unbeaten innings of 66 runs from 27 balls.^[36] Rajasthan were also strong and had four consecutive victories and a perfect record at home.Ajinkya Rahane scored three consecutive half-centuries,Sanju Samson made a strong IPL debut and Watson continued his good form.^[37]

Bangalore's schedule had them play six consecutive away matches, of which they could only win two due to their bowling attack struggling on away surfaces and repeatedly failures to defend high scores set by Gayle, Kohli and de Villiers. Hyderabad's bowlers continued to perform while their batting was strengthened with the inclusion ofShikhar Dhawan, who returned from injury after scoring thefastest Test-debut hundred two months ago,^[38] andDarren Sammy.^[39] Bangalore and Hyderabad slowly fell behind Mumbai and Rajasthan in the points table, allowing a chance for other teams.

Delhi and Pune failed to recover from their poor starts to the season and were the first to be eliminated from the tournament, similar to their performances in2011.^[40] Punjab's form deteriorated as they faced teams at the top-half of the points table, with onlyShaun Marsh andDavid Miller making significant batting contributions.^[41] Kolkata showed signs of improvement as their bowlers limited the opposition to low scores but this only lifted their position to sixth.^[42] Both Punjab and Kolkata needed to win every one of their remaining matches for any chance of qualification.

With ten matches remaining in the group stage, Chennai, Mumbai and Rajasthan were first to earn playoff stage berths while a few losses by Bangalore and Hyderabad gave Kolkata and Punjab a slim chance of competing for the final spot.^[43] Kolkata was eliminated after suffering an upset at home by Pune.^[44] Punjab, despite finishing their season with three straight wins, failed to catch up.^[45] The tie between Bangalore and Hyderabad came down to the final match of the group stage, between Hyderabad and Kolkata. Hyderabad won to place themselves narrowly ahead of Bangalore by one win and qualify.^[46]

Amidst the spot-fixing controversy and despite Faulkner's secondfive-wicket haul, Rajasthan finished the group stage with two consecutive losses and gave Mumbai and Chennai the advantageous top two positions.^[45] InQualifier 1 between Chennai and Mumbai, a 140-run partnership between Raina and Hussey against Mumbai's formidable bowling helped Chennai win by 48 runs and qualify for their fifth IPL Final.Dwayne Smith's innings of 68 runs was the only highlight of Mumbai's innings.^[47] Rajasthan faced Hyderabad in theEliminator. On a slow pitch that troubled batsmen,Brad Hodge top-scored with an unbeaten innings of 54 runs to help Rajasthan win in a low-scoring match.^[48]

InQualifier 2, Mumbai defeated Rajasthan by 4 wickets. Mumbai bowled better, asHarbhajan Singh's 3 wickets earned him theman of the match. Smith was again the top-scorer for Mumbai, scoring 68 but better support from other batsmen allowed Mumbai to win with one ball remaining.^[49] Mumbai faced Chennai in theFinal, in which the Mumbai Indians had a shaky start but due to some great batting by Kieron Pollard (he scored 60*), they managed to reach a score of 148–9. They started well with the ball, reducing Chennai to 39–6, but captainMS Dhoni led from the front. However, he lacked support from the other end. Finally they finished at 125–9, giving theMumbai Indians an unexpected victory and won their first IPL Title.

On 16 May 2013,Rajasthan Royals playersSreesanth,Ankeet Chavan andAjit Chandila were arrested fromMumbai's Trident Hotel byDelhi Police along with seven bookies on charges of spot-fixing in the tournament.^[50] Police sources said the players have been accused of spot-fixing in their matches on 9 and 15 May 2013 against Kings XI Punjab and Mumbai Indians respectively.

On 21 May 2013,Pune Warriors India terminated their participation in the league due to disagreements with their franchisee fees for the BCCI.^[51]

12 venues were selected to host the matches, withRaipur andRanchi hosting for the first time in the tournament's history.^[52] In the playoff stage,Delhi will host the Qualifier 1 and Eliminator whileKolkata will host the Qualifier 2 and Final.Chennai was originally scheduled to host the playoff stage matches instead of Delhi on account of Chennai and Kolkata being the home venues of the runners-up and champions of the2012 season. The change was made due to the political tension in Tamil Nadu preventing Sri Lankan players and management staff from entering the state.^[21][53][54]

Jaipur	Dharamsala	Mohali	Delhi
Rajasthan Royals	Kings XI Punjab	Kings XI Punjab	Delhi Daredevils
Sawai Mansingh Stadium	HPCA Stadium	Punjab Cricket Association Stadium	Feroz Shah Kotla
Capacity: 30,000	Capacity: 23,000	Capacity: 30,000	Capacity: 48,000
Mumbai	Chennai Mumbai Mohali Kolkata Bangalore Dharamsala Jaipur Pune Raipur Delhi Hyderabad Ranchi		Kolkata
Mumbai Indians			Kolkata Knight Riders
Wankhede Stadium			Eden Gardens
Capacity: 45,000			Capacity: 67,000[55]
Pune			Ranchi
Pune Warriors India			Kolkata Knight Riders
Maharashtra Cricket Association Stadium			JSCA International Cricket Stadium
Capacity: 55,000			Capacity: 35,000
Bangalore	Chennai	Hyderabad	Raipur
Royal Challengers Bangalore	Chennai Super Kings	Sunrisers Hyderabad	Delhi Daredevils
M. Chinnaswamy Stadium	M. A. Chidambaram Stadium	Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium	Raipur International Cricket Stadium
Capacity: 40,000	Capacity: 50,000	Capacity: 55,000	Capacity: 65,000

"C" refers to the champions of the tournament, R to the runners-up.

  The leading run-scorer of the tournament wore an orange cap while fielding.

  The leading wicket-taker of the tournament wore a purple cap while fielding.

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