2008 season

During the first player auctions for the inaugural IPL season, conducted in january 208,the Chennai team was able to outbid its competitors to buy current Indian team captain Mahendre Singh Dhoni for $1.5 million, winning the highest bid.

The Super Kings had a solid start to their 2008 IPL Season winning their first 4 matches. However, their top order and bowling attack took a hit after Matthew Haden, Mike Hussey and Jacob Oram left the teeam for international duty. The team's prformance reflected this, as they proceeded to lose their next 3 matches. The batting, although inconsistent, eventually adjusted to the losses of Hayden and Hussey with contrubutions from Dhoni,suresh raina and Albie Morkel. The gap inthe team's bowling left by Oram's departure was eventually filled by athe arrival of Makhaya Ntini and Albie Morkel (both of whom were playing the pro20 domesstic tournament in South Africa during the start of the tournament) and the emergence of Manpreet Gony A win in the final league match against the Deccan Charges ansured their progress into the semi-finels finishinf the group stage at third rank.

The team defeated the Kings XI Punjab in the semifinal by 9 wickets, thus entering the finel, which they lost to Rajasthan Royals by three wickets off the last ball. The Super Kings were the team to post the highest total in the tournament (240 against Kings XI punjab) which was only broken in the 2010 seasonby the Super Kings themselves. Moreover Lakshmipathy Balaji took the first hat-trick of the IPL inth second match against the PUnjab team. The team also won the Fly Kingfisher Fair Play Awards. Suresh raina scored the most runs(421) for chennai while Manpreet gony took most wickets(17)