Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings — two most successful Indian Premier League sides — will kick-start the 13th edition of the tournament at the Wankhede Stadium on March 29, ESPNCricinfo reported on Saturday, later confirmed by the southern franchise.
While the Board of Control for Cricket in India or the IPL have not confirmed the full schedule yet, Sunrisers Hyderabad were the first to tweet out their fixtures on Saturday evening. It was followed by a report on the popular cricket website, confirming the start and end dates of the tournament.
As reported earlier, the final of the tournament will be played in Mumbai on May 24.
In due course, a few other teams confirmed their respective fixtures.
The league phase is extended by a week as the IPL have decided not to have double-headers on every weekend. The report also confirmed 8 pm starts for the matches, as intimated by BCCI president Sourav Ganguly earlier.
“There will be no change in the timing of IPL night games. It will start from 8 pm like the earlier years. There was discussion about 7.30 pm but it’s not happening [this year],” Ganguly had told reporters earlier.
According to a report in Cricbuzz, there will be only six double headers during the season (all on Sundays).
The last league game is scheduled for May 17, between the Royal Challengers Bangalore and defending champions Mumbai Indians in Bengaluru, the report added, meaning that the pre-knockout phase of the tournament will run up to 50 days.
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