The Indian Premier League (IPL) was supposed to begin from March 29 this year but due to Coronavirus outbreak followed by worldwide lockdown, the 13th season of the cash-rich league was postponed by the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) for an indefinite time.
In the meantime, different IPL franchises have started various innovation posts on social media in order to keep their fans engaged. Following the trend, Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) came up with a unique league.
To involve fans, the Bengaluru-based franchise commenced the Indian Poll League – a 55-day tournament based on fans’ opinions. The concept was to put two teams in a competition against each other, and the winners were decided on the grounds of fans’ polls. The interesting thing is that just like the IPL, this league also comprised the playoffs with eliminators to choose the finalists and ultimately the winner.
After 55 days’ of constant voting, the final saw a clash between Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) and RCB, where the latter side defeated the former by 85% of votes.
“A big thank you to everyone who made RCB the champions of the #IndianPollLeague by voting consistently, every day for the last 55 days. In the final, #RCB beat #SRH with an incredible 85% of the votes!” RCB tweeted.
A big thank you to everyone who made RCB the champions of the #IndianPollLeague by voting consistently, every day for the last 55 days. In the final, #RCB beat #SRH with an incredible 8️⃣5️⃣% of the votes! 🏆 #PlayBold #InAParallelUniverse #ipl #Bestfans pic.twitter.com/1WBbU4WCU1
— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) May 25, 2020
However, after the announcement of victory, Chennai Super Kings (CSK) hilariously trolled RCB by pulling the famous punchline of the Bangalore team. CSK used ‘Ee Sala Cup Namde’ or ‘the cup is yours this year’ – a slogan RCB followers chant each IPL season.
CSK, though, did a slight change to the slogan. The Chennai-based franchise tweeted ‘Ee Saala Cup Umadey’ along with the picture of arguably one of the most popular Indian actors, Rajinikanth.
#WhistlePodu 😍 pic.twitter.com/8c706fXxDb
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) May 25, 2020
It’s not the first time CSK has taken a dig at RCB. Earlier, during the third phase of the lockdown, CSK took on their south India rivals on the radar over liquor sales in Bengaluru. During that time, when the Central Government had allowed the state governments to open liquor shops in order to generate revenues, Karnataka witnessed a massive jump in the sale of alcohol.
The Excise Department revealed that liquor worth Rs 45 crore had been sold in the shops across the state, including Bengaluru city till 7 PM, on the first day of re-opening of liquor shops after being shut for over a month. As per the Excise Department, 3.9 lakh litres of beer and 8.5 lakh litres of Indian-made liquor was sold on the first day.
However, the liquor restrictions had continued in Chennai, and that’s the reason CSK taunted RCB throughout the year’s performance in the cash-rich league. The yellow army had also accepted an occasional defeat concerning sales of liquor.
So much chatter about Chennai competing with Bangalore vis-à-vis liquor sales. With the latest announcement, we are glad we lost that match even before it began, for battles in the present universe are more important. #COVID #TASMAC 🦁💛
— Chennai Super Kings (@ChennaiIPL) May 5, 2020
