during the first player auctions for the inaugural ipl season conducted in january 2008, the chennai franchise bought a number of contemporary star cricketers such as mahendra singh dhoni, matthew hayden, stephen fleming, muttiah muralitharan and michael hussey. dhoni became the costliest player of the auction, as the chennai franchise bought him for $1.5 million.the franchise named dhoni as the captain of the team and appointed kepler wessels as the head coach.they played their first game on 19 april 2008 against kings xi punjab at mohali. the super kings won the game by 33 runs after posting 240/5 in 20 overs, which was the highest total of the tournament, a record surpassed by themselves in 2010.the super kings ended the league stage with eight wins from 14 games and finished third on the points table.they beat the kings xi punjab by 9 wickets in the semifinal.the super kings faced the rajasthan royals in the final of the ipl at mumbai. batting first, the super kings scored 163/5 in 20 overs and lost the game by 3 wickets off the final delivery of the match.