A league like the Indian Premier League (IPL) relies on rivalries, legend, and drama, which attracts spectators. The rivalry may be between anybody – teams, players, or the respective social media accounts.
It’s a significant potential to attach people to a long event like the IPL.
These rivalries are not generated on purpose; they only require an ignition to create a sense of tension among the people.
The famous “El Clasico” of IPL between five-time champs Mumbai Indians (MI) and four-time winners Chennai Super Kings (CSK) started in 2010, two years after the league started.
This rivalry gets stronger each season, not only among fans and their social media, but also between the two top teams.
More rivalries like this have appeared during the season, some driven by fans and others by the intense matches between the clubs.
In terms of rivalry, IPL 2023 has been no different. This season should be remembered for several odd rivalries that no one could have predicted.
This article focuses on rivalries developed between fans, teams, or teams’ social media accounts.
3) Rajasthan Royals and Punjab Kings
What does it need to have a heated rivalry? Close games? Controversy? Trolling and bashing each other?
You name it, and these two clubs have delivered all of the elements for what we term a blockbuster game. This rivalry has never disappointed fans, whether it was the 2015 Super Over, Ravichandran Ashwin “Mankading” Jos Buttler (2019), Rahul Tewatia smacking five sixes off Sheldon Cottrell (2020), Sanju Samson’s lone fight in a big chase (2021), or Kartik Tyagi defending four runs in the last over against Punjab (2021).
It wasn’t only fans that referred to the rivalry between these two earlier “El Clasico” matches in the IPL as “El Clasico”; this year, both teams’ social media accounts got joined in the banter, with each naming it the same.
Didn’t it also merit the name “El Clasico” this time?
The Punjab Kings (PBKS) defeated the Rajasthan Royals (RR) by five runs in a high-scoring thriller, with Sam Curran delivering a brilliant last over to allow just 10 runs against a rampaging Dhruv Jurel and Jason Holder.
2) Mumbai Indians and Punjab Kings
By no means was this intended to be a heated rivalry, but the Punjab Kings’ Twitter account had other ideas.
The Punjab Kings tagged the Mumbai Police handle in banter to tease the Mumbai Indians after Arshdeep Singh delivered a magnificent 20th over in the first meet between the two teams, breaking the middle stump as much as two times in that over.
Fans may have taken this in smoothly if they hadn’t also removed Sachin Tendulkar’s name from a post praising their Impact Player and opener Prabhsimran Singh’s performance.
This angered not just Mumbai Indians supporters, but also people across the country who loved the icon in a divine manner.
When the two teams played again this season, Mumbai got their revenge. After their six-wicket win, they tweeted that there wasn’t much to say, and they just played cricket and beat their rivals.
Fans, on the other hand took it upon themselves to mock the Punjab team by reminding them of earlier tweets.
1) Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants
There were very unpleasant scenes when the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) defeated the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in Lucknow.
RCB, powered by a ferociously charged-up Virat Kohli, were eager to avenge their crushing defeat at home, where Gautam Gambhir’s “finger on lip” celebration to hush the Chinnaswamy crowd angered not just the supporters but also Virat.
It was a war inside the stadium, with Kohli imitating Gambhir only to get the fans to shout harder.
After the game, an argument between Kohli – Gambhir and Naveen-ul-Haq made headlines, with verbal volleys fired at each other.