Few days back, the Twitter India account released an official survey from the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) season. In terms of popularity, the 13th edition of the mega-tournament was among the most followed sporting events of the year. In fact, this year’s IPL recorded a staggering 28% spike in viewership compared to the last season.
CSK, RCB, MI most-followed teams; DC end up last
There are several interesting takeaways from the poll-results; one of the more interesting ones being that the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) emerged as the most talked-about team from the season. Which is kind of ironic: 2020 saw CSK suffer through their worst IPL campaign of all time. The team failed to secure a playoffs-berth for the first time in 11 seasons and faced some unnecessary controversies both on and off the field. Despite these problems, the MS Dhoni-led team still topped Twitter’s most-tweeted criterion. A classic example of no bad publicity.
Virat Kohli’s Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) trailed just behind CSK on the most-followed list- probably owing to their remarkable and highly-anticipated playoff-qualification after 4 seasons. Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Rajasthan, Punjab, and Delhi occupy the remaining ranks respectively. Delhi’s last-place-rank is quite surprising, considering they finished as this season’s silver-medalists.
Meanwhile, defending champs Mumbai Indians’ (MI) name featured across each of the three most followed games from the season. MI’s season opener against CSK was this year’s most talked-about match; followed by their clash against SRH on October 4. The third most-talked about match turned out to be Mumbai and Punjab’s nail-biting double super-over faceoff at Dubai.
Virat Kohli most-tweeted player; Sachin Tendulkar wins the IPL 2020 Golden Tweet award
As far as individual stats are concerned, Virat Kohli, unsurprisingly, ended up as the tourney’s most popular player. However, Kohli’s flamboyance and charisma couldn’t match up to Sachin Tendulkar’s candid insights. The legendary India batsman usurped King Kohli to the throne of the 2020 IPL’s ‘Golden Tweet’ of the tournament.
On September 27, during Rajasthan’s spectacular group-stage clash against Punjab, the Master Blaster had made a tweet praising Nicholas Pooran’s fabulous fielding. For context: the KXIP fielder had pulled off a stunning dive-save, and had brilliantly fielded a boundary at deep mid-wicket.
This is the best save I have seen in my life. Simply incredible!! ?#IPL2020 #RRvKXIP pic.twitter.com/2r7cNZmUaw
— Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) September 27, 2020
“This is the best save I have seen in my life. Simply incredible!!”, Tendulkar had written about Pooran. Sachin’s tweet acclaimed over 200 thousand likes and 26 thousand retweets. And as it turned out, it ended up as the most popular tweet from the entirety of the 2020 IPL season.