It was heady all right. Well more than 24 hours after it was supposed to, the IPL 2023 final did happen, and it ended, after many ebbs and flows, and rain and a lot of drama, off the final ball, with Chennai Super Kings winning their fifth title. Here are all the numbers that matter.
5 - IPL titles won by Chennai Super Kings, the joint-most, equalling Mumbai Indians' haul. This was also CSK's seventh title in all T20 tournaments, equal with Mumbai and Titans (South Africa), and only behind Sialkot Stallions (8).
5 - Number of IPL titles as captain for MS Dhoni, who has joined Rohit Sharma to become the league's most successful captain. Rohit, however, has won six titles as a player (with Mumbai Indians and Deccan Chargers), a record equalled on Monday night by Ambati Rayudu (with Mumbai Indians and CSK).
4 - Runs needed for CSK on the final ball to win the title, which they did. There have been only two previous instances of a team chasing four or more runs on the last ball of a T20 final. India needed five runs on the last ball of the 2018 Nidahas Trophy final against Bangladesh, which they won with a six from Dinesh Karthik. And Shahrukh Khan hit a six when five runs were needed in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy final in 2021 for Tamil Nadu against Karnataka.
6 - Consecutive IPL titles won by the team that won the first qualifier. The first qualifier winners so far have won ten out of 13 seasons in the playoffs format that began in 2011. Mumbai Indians in 2013 and 2017 won the title after winning the second qualifier, and Sunrisers Hyderabad in 2016 won the IPL title after playing the Eliminator, the only instance of that happening.
26 - Instances of Ravindra Jadeja finishing unbeaten in a successful IPL chase, the second-highest, behind only Dhoni, who has been unbeaten 27 times.
3 - Bowlers from Gujarat Titans occupied the top-three places in the highest wicket-takers' list for the season: Mohammed Shami (28), Rashid Khan (27) and Mohit Sharma (27). It's the first instance in the IPL where the top-three wicket-takers have been from the same team.
It was also the second such instance in all T20 tournaments (where teams played ten-plus matches), after Lions in the Ram Slam T20 Challenge in 2012-13. Each of the top-four wicket-takers of that tournament were from Lions.
232.39 - Ajinkya Rahane's strike rate against pace bowlers in this IPL, the third-highest for any batter in a season (minimum 100 runs vs pacers). Rahane scored 165 runs off 71 balls against quicks this season, while being dismissed only twice. Tim David scored 154 runs at a strike rate of 252.45 last year, while James Faulkner struck 136 runs at a rate of 242.85 in 2014.
214 for 4 - Gujarat Titans' total against CSK was the highest by any team in a T20 tournament final to end up on the losing side. The previous highest was 200 for 7 by Royal Challengers Bangalore in the 2016 IPL final against SRH in a 209-run chase.
96 - B Sai Sudharsan's score against CSK was the third highest individual score in an IPL final, after Shane Watson's 117* for CSK against SRH in 2018 and Wriddhiman Saha's 115* for KXIP against KKR in 2014.
300 - Sudharsan's strike rate in his last 20 balls of the final. He scored 60 runs with six fours and five sixes. He had scored only 37 off his first 27 balls with two fours and a six.
21y 226d - Sudharsan's age, making him the second youngest player to score a fifty in an IPL final.
56 - Runs conceded by Tushar Deshpande in his four overs, the joint-second most runs conceded by a bowler in an IPL final. Shane Watson gave away 61 in the 2016 final against SRH, while Lockie Ferguson conceded 56 against CSK in 2021.
890 Shubman Gill's runs this IPL - the second highest aggregate for a season, behind Virat Kohli's 973 in IPL 2016.
5 Number of 200-plus totals by Titans in IPL 2023, all in Ahmedabad.