With the introduction of 2 new teams, a new ten-team format was created. This new format consisted of 74 matches and was introduced as retaining the previous format would result in 94 matches, significantly greater than the 60 matches from the previous season, where teams compete in a double round-robin tournament. The knockout stage was changed to a playoff format. If a match ends in a tie, a Super Over will be played to determine the winner. The ten teams are divided into two groups of five. In the group stage, each team plays 14 games: facing the other four teams in their group two times each (one home and one away game), four teams in the other group once, and the remaining team two times. A random draw was used to determine the groups and who plays whom across the groups once and twice. Each team plays the team in the same row and the same column twice, and all others once. For instance, Deccan Chargers will play Chennai Super Kings and the other Group A teams twice but the other teams from Group B (Kolkata Knight Riders, Kochi Tuskers Kerala, Royal Challengers Bangalore and Rajasthan Royals) only once. Similarly Kochi Tuskers Kerala will play Delhi Daredevils and the other Group B teams twice but all other teams from Group A only once. A team winning a match would be awarded 2 points. The losing team would not receive any points. In case of a draw or no result, both teams would be awarded 1 point. For the first time, replacing the traditional semi-finals and final format, a four-game playoff stage following the Page playoff system was to be held after the group stage. Four games were to be played in the playoffs: Qualifier 1: between the teams ranked first and second in the group stage. , Eliminator: between the teams ranked third and fourth in the group stage. , Qualifier 2: between the loser of the Qualifier 1 and winner of the Eliminator. , Final: between the winners of the Qualifiers 1 and 2. The top three teams from the tournament would qualify for the 2011 Champions League Twenty20 while the fourth team would enter the qualifying stage of the tournament. Due to the playoff format, the qualifying teams would be the top two teams of the group stage and the winner of the Eliminator in the playoff stage.
| Group A | Group B |
| Deccan Chargers | Chennai Super Kings |
| Delhi Daredevils | Kochi Tuskers Kerala |
| Kings XI Punjab | Kolkata Knight Riders |
| Mumbai Indians | Rajasthan Royals |
| Pune Warriors India | Royal Challengers Bangalore |
Each team could have a squad of at most 30 players with a maximum of US$9 million to spend on purchasing players. . Choosing to retain players would subject to a reduction in their salary cap, reducing the amount they may spend on other players. All other players were added to the auction held on 8 and 9 January 2011. The catchment areas of the eight existing teams were changed to account for the two new teams. Catchment areas are nominated areas to help each team select their local players. Each team must select four players from their area. A total of 12 players have been retained by all the franchises while the remaining go to the auction list. The retained players – who must have been part of the franchise's registered squads for the 2010 season – were valued at $1.8 million for the first player, $1.3 million for the second, $900,000 for the third and $500,000 for the fourth. Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings retained the maximum of four players while the Kings XI Punjab, Deccan Chargers and Kolkata Knight Riders released all their players. The RCB franchise owners only retained one player (Virat Kohli), but let go of a few key players – Rahul Dravid, Dale Steyn, Jacques Kallis. These players emerged very consistent subsequently in the years 2012 and 2013.
Note: Top four teams qualified for the playoffs. The top three teams also qualified for the Champions League Twenty20 while the fourth team played in the qualifying stage. ("C" refers to the "Champions" of the Tournament. 'R'(2nd Position), '3' and '4' are the positions of the respective teams in the tournament.) Pune and Kochi are new to the league. The auction for these teams was held at Chennai on 22 March 2010. These two bids, worth a total of Rs 3,235 crore, were more than the Rs 2,853 crore collectively paid for the eight franchises in the first auction, on 24 January 2008. The Rajasthan Royals, and the Kings XI Punjab were temporarily ejected from the league due to issues with their unreported ownership changes. The teams were reinstated with involvement from the High Court. Their owners were broken into several legal entities when the BCCI required the incorporation of the companies. Kochi was also at risk of ejection for the same reasons before BCCI cleared their new ownership pattern for the tournament.
| Pos | Grp | Team v , t , e | Pld | W | L | NR | Pts | NRR |
| 1 | B | Royal Challengers Bangalore (R) | 14 | 9 | 4 | 1 | 19 | 0.326 |
| 2 | B | Chennai Super Kings (C) | 14 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 18 | 0.443 |
| 3 | A | Mumbai Indians (3) | 14 | 9 | 5 | 0 | 18 | 0.040 |
| 4 | B | Kolkata Knight Riders (4) | 14 | 8 | 6 | 0 | 16 | 0.433 |
| 5 | A | Kings XI Punjab | 14 | 7 | 7 | 0 | 14 | −0.051 |
| 6 | B | Rajasthan Royals | 14 | 6 | 7 | 1 | 13 | −0.691 |
| 7 | A | Deccan Chargers | 14 | 6 | 8 | 0 | 12 | 0.222 |
| 8 | B | Kochi Tuskers Kerala | 14 | 6 | 8 | 0 | 12 | −0.214 |
| 9 | A | Pune Warriors India | 14 | 4 | 9 | 1 | 9 | −0.134 |
| 10 | A | Delhi Daredevils | 14 | 4 | 9 | 1 | 9 | −0.448 |
Note: Results listed are according to the home (horizontal) and visitor (vertical) teams., Note: Click on a result to see a summary of the match. Note: The total points at the end of each group match are listed., Note: Click on the points (group matches) or W/L (playoffs) to see the match summary.
| Visitor team → | CSK | DC | DD | KXIP | KTK | KKR | MI | PWI | RR | RCB |
| Home team ↓ | ||||||||||
| Chennai Super Kings | Chennai19 runs | Chennai18 runs | Chennai11 runs | Chennai2 runs | Chennai25 runs | Chennai8 wickets | Chennai21 runs | |||
| Deccan Chargers | Delhi4 wickets | Punjab8 wickets | Kolkata20 runs | Mumbai37 runs | Pune6 wickets | Rajasthan8 wickets | Deccan33 runs | |||
| Delhi Daredevils | Deccan16 runs | Delhi29 runs | Kochi7 wickets | Kolkata17 runs | Mumbai8 wickets | Matchabandoned | Bengaluru3 wickets | |||
| Kings XI Punjab | Punjab6 wickets | Deccan82 runs | Punjab29 runs | Punjab76 runs | Pune5 wickets | Punjab48 runs | Punjab111 runs | |||
| Kochi Tuskers Kerala | Kochi7 wickets (D/L) | Deccan55 runs | Delhi38 runs | Punjab6 wickets | Kochi17 runs | Kochi8 wickets | Bengaluru6 wickets | |||
| Kolkata Knight Riders | Kolkata10 runs (D/L) | Kolkata9 runs | Kolkata8 wickets | Kochi6 runs | Mumbai5 wickets | Kolkata8 wickets | Bengaluru9 wickets | |||
| Mumbai Indians | Mumbai8 runs | Deccan10 runs | Mumbai32 runs | Mumbai23 runs | Kochi8 wickets | Mumbai7 wickets | Rajasthan10 wickets | |||
| Pune Warriors India | Chennai8 wickets | Deccan6 wickets | Delhi3 wickets | Pune7 wickets | Pune4 wickets | Kolkata7 wickets | Mumbai21 runs | |||
| Rajasthan Royals | Chennai63 runs | Rajasthan6 wickets | Rajasthan8 wickets | Kolkata9 wickets | Rajasthan7 wickets | Rajasthan6 wickets | Bengaluru9 wickets | |||
| Royal Challengers Bengaluru | Bengaluru8 wickets | Bengaluru85 runs | Bengaluru9 wickets | Bengaluru4 wickets (D/L) | Mumbai9 wickets | Bengaluru26 runs | Matchabandoned |
| Home team won | Visitor team won |
| Team | Group matches | Playoffs | |||||||||||||||
| 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11 | 12 | 13 | 14 | Q1 | E | Q2 | F |
| Chennai Super Kings | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 18 | 18 | W | W | |
| Deccan Chargers | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | |||
| Delhi Daredevils | 0 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 9 | |||
| Kings XI Punjab | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 14 | |||
| Kochi Tuskers Kerala | 0 | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 12 | |||
| Kolkata Knight Riders | 0 | 2 | 4 | 6 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 14 | 16 | 16 | L | ||
| Mumbai Indians | 2 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 14 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 16 | 18 | W | L | |
| Pune Warriors India | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 8 | 8 | 9 | |||
| Rajasthan Royals | 2 | 4 | 4 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 11 | 13 | |||
| Royal Challengers Bengaluru | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | 7 | 9 | 11 | 13 | 15 | 17 | 17 | 19 | L | W | L |
| Win | Loss | No result |
Chennai Super Kings won the toss and elected to field.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to field.
Mumbai Indians won the toss and elected to field.
Chennai Super Kings won the toss and elected to bat.
The leading scorer of the league phase wore an orange cap when fielding.
The tournament's leading wicket taker wore a purple cap when fielding.
Source: Wikipedia