The 2008 Indian Premier League season was the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League, established by the BCCI in 2007. The season commenced on 18 April 2008 with the final match was held on 1 June 2008. The competition started with a double round robin league stage, in which each of the 8 teams played a home match and an away match against every other team. These matches were followed by two semi-finals and a final. The tagline was, Tu laga dum!(Put all your power!). In a match which went down to the last ball, Rajasthan Royals defeated Chennai Super Kings in the final to win the title, with Yusuf Pathan named the player of the match in the Finals and Shane Watson adjudged the player of the tournament. Sohail Tanvir won the purple cap for being the top wicket-taking bowler while Shaun Marsh won the orange cap for leading run-scorer in the tournament. Shreevats Goswami was awarded the best under-19 player award and the special award for Fair Play was won by the CSK. Auctions and personnel signings The auctions for team ownership was held on January 24, 2008. Mumbai was the most expensive team, costing over 111.9 million. For the inaugural IPL season, each team had a salary cap of US$5 million (Rs. 20 crore approx.). Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly, Rahul Dravid, Yuvraj Singh and Virender Sehwag were classified as icon players. They played for the franchises representing their home towns and hence did not enter the auction. Few players were classified as marquee players and the teams which lost out on icon players were allowed one extra marquee player to be selected in the auction. The first auction was conducted on 20 February 2008 with Mahendra Singh Dhoni winning the highest bid of US$1.5 million. Andrew Symonds was the most costly foreign player. A further second auction was held for few foreign players signed. Teams also signed players on individual basis. Venues Rules and regulations Points in the group stage were awarded as follows: In the event of tied scores after both teams have faced their quota of overs, a bowl-out will determine the winner, even in the group stage. In the group stage, teams will be ranked on the following criteria: Higher number of points If equal, higher number of wins If still equal, net run rate If still equal, lower bowling strike rate If