El Clasico is the fiercest rivalry in the football world with the match between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona. These are the two strongest, most successful teams in Spanish football.
Why is CSKvsMI called El Clasico of IPL?
Because Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI) are the two most successful teams in the IPL history, sharing 9 titles between them, their match is called the El Clasico of the IPL, taking the name from football’s Real Madrid-Barcelona rivalry which is between the two biggest Spanish clubs.
MI and CSK have indulged in some of the most iconic, thrilling matches in the Indian Premier League, with the 2019 final ending on the last ball.
The two teams have boasted some of the biggest icons of the Indian Premier League: Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Suresh Raina, Rohit Sharma, Dwayne Bravo, Kieron Pollard and Lasith Malinga.
While the Real Madrid-Barcelona rivalry has a rich political history, dating back to the early 20th century, there is no such political history between Mumbai and Chennai since the Indian Premier League began. They are, though, two of the biggest metropolitan cities in India and are the capitals of their respective states.
Adding some masala to their rivalry are the two largest film industries in India, the Hindi film industry (Bollywood) and the Tamil film industry (Kollywood) based in Mumbai and Chennai respectively.
CSK vs MI head-to-head stats:
CSK and MI have come head-to-head in 35 IPL Matches with MI winning 20 games and CSK winning 15. Mumbai Indians is the only team against which CSK have lost more matches than have victories against them.
This is also the most number of times any two teams have met each other in the IPL. The reason for that is both of them have made into the playoffs and the finals a record time. MI have made into 6 IPL finals, and won 5 of them. MI faced CSK in the final of 2010, 2013, 2015, and 2019 – losing the first won before winning the next 3.
IPL 2022 was the first season when neither side reached the playoffs stage. (MI also didn’t reach the 2016 playoffs but CSK were banned that season).
