A sporting event like the Indian Premier League (IPL) thrives on rivalries, drama, and folklore, all of which captivate spectators and provide them with a sense of entertainment. The rivalry can be between teams, players, or the respective teams’ social media handles.
Getting fans to stick around for a long tournament like the IPL is a crucial opportunity.
These rivalries do not originate on purpose; all they require is a spark to ignite a sense of conflict among the populace.
The consistently advanced “El Clasico” of the IPL between five-time champions Mumbai Indians (MI) and four-time victors Chennai Super Rulers (CSK) began in 2010, two years after the IPL’s beginning.
This rivalry has intensified not only between the two champion teams but also between fans and their social media accounts with each passing season.
There have been all the more such contentions worked across the season, some made by fans and some made by the power of the matches played between the two groups.
IPL 2023 has been the same such a long ways regarding competitions. This season ought to be remembered for some unexpected rivalries that no one could have foreseen.
We focus on rivalries between fans, teams, or teams’ social media handles in this article.
#3 Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals
What do the Punjab Kings and Rajasthan Royals need to compete fiercely? Close matches? Controversy? Savaging and sledding each other?
You name it, these two teams have provided everything necessary for what we refer to as a blockbuster matchup. Fans have never been disappointed by this rivalry, whether it be in the 2015 Super Over, Ravichandran Ashwin “Mankading” Jos Buttler (2019), Rahul Tewatia smashing five sixes off Sheldon Cottrell (2020), Sanju Samson’s one fight in a big chase (2021), or Kartik Tyagi defending four runs in the final over against Punjab (2021).
In this year’s IPL, the rivalry between these two other teams was referred to as “El Clasico” by fans as well as by the social media handles of both teams, with each using the same term.
This time, did it not also support the “El Clasico” label?
In a high-scoring thrill ride, the Punjab Lords (PBKS) figured out how to put down the Rajasthan Royals (RR) by five runs, with Sam Curran dumbfounding a fabulous last to give just 10 goes against a wild Dhruv Jurel and Jason Holder.
#2 Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians
The Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians never intended for this to be a fierce rivalry, but the Punjab Kings’ Twitter handle had other ideas.
The Punjab Kings tagged the Mumbai Police handle in a joke to troll the Mumbai Indians after Arshdeep Singh bowled a superb 20th over, breaking the middle stump as many as twice in that over.
If they hadn’t also removed Sachin Tendulkar’s name from a post to praise their Impact Player and opener Prabhsimran Singh’s performance, fans might have taken this in a sporting manner.
This set off Mumbai Indians fans as well as fans the nation over who respected the legend in a genuine manner.
Mumbai was the team to exact revenge when the two teams met for the second time this season. After winning by six wickets, Mumbai tweeted that there was nothing to report and that they had just won a cricket match against their opponents.
However, fans decided to troll the Punjab team by reminding them of their previous tweets.
#1 Royal Challengers Bangalore and Lucknow Super Giants
There were some ugly scenes following the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) victory over the Lucknow Super Giants (LSG) in Lucknow.
Virat Kohli, a fiercely motivated RCB player, was eager to avenge their devastating home loss, where Gautam Gambhir’s “finger on lip” celebration to silence the Chinnaswamy crowd did not go over well with Virat.
It was a fight inside the fight, during which Kohli copied Gambhir just to urge the group to cheer stronger.
A verbal altercation between Kohli-Naveen-ul-Haq and Kohli-Gambhir made headlines after the game was over, with verbal jabs at each other.