Heading into the tournament, as with the previous seasons, both the
Chennai Super Kings and
Mumbai Indians were considered to be amongst the favourites due to their past performances and squads. Chennai were the runners-up of
2012 and twice IPL champions before. Mumbai had made playoff-stage appearances in each of the past three years and were runners-up in
2010 when they lost to Chennai.
Group stage Chennai and Mumbai were dominant throughout the group stage. At the end of the group stage, they were ranked first and second respectively and each had 11 wins from 16 matches. Apart from losing their first match, which was against Mumbai, and an upset against
Pune Warriors India, Chennai started their season strong with consistent batting from
Michael Hussey and
Suresh Raina.
Captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and
Ravindra Jadeja formed a strong middle order as they scored quickly late in their innings to help Chennai while chasing. Chennai's bowling attack continued to be considered their one weakness. While the inclusion of
Dirk Nannes and
Chris Morris, both purchased at this year's
auction, produced a few successes, the best bowling performances came from
Dwayne Bravo and
Mohit Sharma. Sharma, an uncapped Indian player playing in his debut IPL season, took the most wickets in powerplays in the first half of the season. For most of the season's second half, Chennai held the top position on the points table with an IPL record-equalling seven-match winning streak. Hussey and Raina continued their prolific run-scoring. Hussey was frequently the season's highest run-scorer while Raina made his maiden IPL century and another score of 99. They, however, finished the group stage with three losses from five matches, including another against Mumbai. Mumbai began the season with the new opening batting partnership of
Sachin Tendulkar and
Ricky Ponting, who was acquired in the auction and took on the captaincy. This partnership failed to produce runs and Ponting was benched after five matches. Instead, Mumbai's batting solely depended on
Dinesh Karthik,
Rohit Sharma and
Kieron Pollard and they could only win three of their first six matches. Mumbai were at the middle of the points table halfway through the season. As the tournament progressed, they had a more consistent top order with
Dwayne Smith replacing Ponting and an improved bowling attack that included
Mitchell Johnson, in his first IPL season,
Harbhajan Singh,
Lasith Malinga and
Pragyan Ojha. Sharma, who took over the captaincy from Ponting, continued his form while Karthik began to struggle. Pollard only made one more significant contribution when he scored 66 runs from 27 balls. Towards the end of the group stage, Tendulkar suffered a wrist injury. This did not hamper the team as his replacement,
Aditya Tare, showed promise with a score of 59 runs in his first innings. Mumbai only lost two of their last ten matches, both due to batting collapses.
Group stage series In the two group stage matches between Mumbai and Chennai, Mumbai won both. In the first, Mumbai initially struggled and were 83 for 6 after 12 overs before Pollard's unbeaten innings of 57 runs from 38 balls lifted them to a total of 148 for 6. Chennai suffered a similar collapse to lose the match by 9 runs despite a valiant innings of 51 runs from Dhoni. In their second encounter, Mumbai struggled to a below-par total of 139 for 5 with Sharma having the top score of 39. Chennai was then bowled out for 79, the lowest total of the season, and lost by 60 runs. Only three of their batsmen made scores of double figures, including Hussey who was dropped by Pollard in three successive deliveries off Johnson's bowling. Dhoni described the match as "a comedy of errors" and explained the cause of the defeat to be complacency and a lack of focus as they had won their past seven matches.
Playoff stage The playoff stage is played according to the
Page playoff system and provided Mumbai and Chennai, being the top- and second-ranked teams, with two ways of qualifying for the Final. They first faced each other in Qualifier 1 where the winners would qualify for the Final. The losers of Qualifier 1 would play against the winners of the Eliminator in Qualifier 2, the winners of which would also qualify for the Final. In Qualifier 1, Chennai chose to bat first. Both captains wished to bat first and believed the flat pitch and quick outfield would favour batsmen and produce a high-scoring match. Chennai's innings began steady before a 140-run partnership between Raina and Hussey boosted their total to 192 for 1. They scored 123 runs from the last 10 overs against Mumbai's formidable bowling attack. Malinga and Johnson, two of Mumbai's key bowlers, conceded 45 and 40 runs each without taking a wicket. Harbhajan, with figures of 0 for 26, was the only bowler to concede less than 9 runs an over. The chase started promisingly as Smith propelled them to 86 for 1 after 8 overs. Jadeja was then introduced into the attack and took the wickets of Smith, Karthik and Pollard. Mumbai did not recover as Bravo helped remove the remaining batsmen, finishing with figures of 3 for 9. Mumbai was bowled out in 18.4 overs and lost the match by 48 runs. Qualifier 2 was between Mumbai and the
Rajasthan Royals. Rain delayed the game by an hour but it remained a full-length match. Rajasthan captain
Rahul Dravid won the toss and elected to bat. Both captains wanted to bat, stating it appeared to be a good pitch to bat on. Dravid and
Ajinkya Rahane provided a solid but slow start to reach 42 without loss after 6 overs. Harbhajan then entered the attack and took the wickets of Rahane and
Shane Watson, Royals' top scorer of the season, in his first two overs. Apart from Dravid, who also fell to Harbhajan for 43 runs, only
Stuart Binny and
Dishant Yagnik made good scores. Yagnik's quick scoring helped Rajasthan get 46 runs from the last 3 overs and finish with 165 for 5. Mumbai were confident in their chase as Smith helped them reach 125 for 1 after 14 overs. Wickets were then lost at regular intervals but the required rate remained manageable and Mumbai won by 4 wickets with one ball remaining. Smith was again the top scorer for Mumbai with 62 runs. ==Team history==