The Spanish term “El Clásico” translates to “The Classic” in English. In the sporting context, El clásico refers to the match between La Liga rivals Real Madrid and Barcelona. From Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi to Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo, El Clásico has seen some great footballers competing in it over the past few decades. so which match is the el clásico of ipl?
In the Indian Premier League, the El Clásico is named to the contest between Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and Mumbai Indians (MI).
Like La Liga, the El Clasico of IPL has also seen cricketing stalwarts like Sachin Tendulkar, MS Dhoni, Rohit Sharma, Lasith Malinga, and many more competing in the history of this fixture. The two teams – Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings – share eight IPL titles between them and have faced each other in as many as three IPL finals.
Interestingly, El clásico in IPL didn’t become a prominent idea until 2019, despite Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians facing each other since the inaugural IPL season in 2008, when Mumbai skipper Rohit Sharma had famously tweeted, “#ElClassico of @IPL is here folks” ahead of their match against CSK. The term soon went viral.
Who leads head-to-head in El Clasico of IPL
In the history of the IPL, Mumbai Indians and Chennai Super Kings have faced each other 32 times with Mumbai Indians winning the most number of matches. Having been one of the most successful teams in IPL, who have won it five times, it is no surprise that MI have dominated this fixture. But, MS Dhoni has ensured that Chennai don’t stay too far behind.
The CSK vs MI fixture has seen Chennai Super Kings winning 13 times and Mumbai Indians being victorious on 19 occasions. No match between them has ended in a tie. The two teams have seen some of the high-scoring as well as low-scoring contests.
The highest scoring clash between Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians took place when the two teams faced at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in May earlier this year. After CSK had posted a total of 218 in 20 overs, defending champions MI had chased it down with four wickets remaining.
In one of the rare IPL encounters of the 2013 edition, CSK and MI had produced the lowest-scoring contest at the Wankhede Stadium. After restricting hosts Mumbai to a paltry total of 139 runs CSK almost had the match in their pocket, before Mitchell Johnson and Pragyan Ojha took three-fers each to bundle the visitors for just 79 runs in the second innings.
Top performers in El Clasico of IPL
As is often the case in great battles, this fixture has also forged heroes over the years. From Mumbai all-rounder Kieron Pollard to CSK batsman Suresh Raina, IPL’s El Clasico is witness to numerous individual performances.
As is often the case in great battles, this fixture has also forged heroes over the years. From Mumbai all-rounder, Kieron Pollard to CSK batsman Suresh Raina, IPL’s El Clasico is witness to numerous individual performances.
Top run-scorers in CSK vs MI matches
| Player | Team | Runs |
| Suresh Raina | CSK | 736 |
| Rohit Sharma | MI | 693 |
| MS Dhoni | CSK | 646 |
| Kieron Pollard | MI | 622 |
| Ambati Rayudu | CSK | 582 |
Top wicket-takers in CSK vs MI matches
| Player | Team | Wickets |
| Lasith Malinga | MI | 37 |
| Dwayne Bravo | MI, CSK | 35 |
| Harbhajan Singh | MI,CSK | 26 |
| Ravindra Jadeja | CSK | 18 |
| Mohit Sharma | CSK | 15 |
Other records in El Clasico of IPL
The record for the highest score tallied in a CSK vs MI match is an unbeaten 114 scored by Mumbai’s Sanath Jayasuriya in 2008. The Sri Lankan cricketer also scored the fastest century in the history of this fixture, which came in 45 balls. The record for the fastest fifty in this fixture is held by Pollard, who scored it in just 17 balls.
For Chennai, the mantle of making the highest score belongs to newbie Ruturaj Gaikwad who recently scored an unbeaten 81 against Mumbai in IPL 2021.
The best bowling figures in this fixture belongs to Mumbai’s Harbhajan Singh who had returned with 5/18 against Chennai in 2011. For Chennai, it was Mohit Sharma’s 4/14 in IPL 2014 that is the best bowling figure.
How has El Clasico of IPL shaped over the years
Both Chennai Super Kings and Mumbai Indians had different approaches when the IPL started in 2008. While Mumbai decided to bank on established stars like Sachin Tendulkar, Jayasuriya, Zaheer Khan and others, the CSK management took a risk on an unproven Dhoni and the then lesser-known T20 talents like Ravindra Jadeja, Suresh Raina and more.
While the 2008 and 2009 IPL seasons saw both the teams winning the encounter at their home venues, Dhoni’s unrivalled captaincy saw CSK win two of the three clashes of the 2010 season when the Yellow Army won the title as well.
Mumbai revamped its recruitment policy in 2010 with a new think tank coming into place. Though CSK won the title in 2011 yet again, MI were starting to dominate proceedings and won five of their seven clashes with CSK in 2012 and 2013.
Mumbai decided to hand Rohit Sharma the captaincy in 2013 and following a blip season in 2014, where CSK won all their three encounters with MI, Mumbai Indians have never looked back. Since the 2015 IPL season, Rohit Sharma has led Mumbai Indians to 10 wins out of the 14 encounters between the two teams. He also won four IPL titles in this space.
