The 2019 edition of Indian Premier League (IPL) saw a record-breaking 27 million tweets, a 44% increase over last year's IPL-related tweets. Twitter, releasing the stats from the just-concluded season, also shared iconic tweets including the very famous post from Hardik Pandya, acknowledging MS Dhoni as his friend and source of inspiration.
Mumbai Indians (MI) dominated the conversation on Twitter on Sunday when they won the final, owning 63% of total mentions as against their opponents Chennai Super Kings' (CSK) 37%.
However, it was CSK which won hearts by becoming the most tweeted about team on the popular micro-blogging site.
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The most tweet of the season, aptly labelled the Golden Tweet was Hardik Pandya post on Dhoni. Dhoni and Pandya played against each other in the final, but "this tweet shows the strong sportsmanship between opposing IPL sides. The tweet received nearly 16K retweets."
CSK captain Dhoni was the most tweeted about player during the season, followed by Royal Challengers Bangalore captain Virat Kohli, MI skipper Rohit Sharma, veteran spinner Harbhajan Singh and the most valuable player Andre Russell.
Unsurprisingly, the nail-biting MI vs CSK final was the most tweeted about the match of the season.
In the final, Lasith Malinga produced an incredible last over to defend nine runs as MI claimed undisputed supremacy in the IPL by securing their fourth title with a narrow one-run win over CSK in a pulsating final at Hyderabad on Sunday.
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CSK needed nine runs off the last over but the experienced Lankan paceman Malinga kept his nerve to concede eight. He trapped Shardul Thakur leg before in the last ball after Shane Watson (80 off 59) got run out two balls earlier.
Before that Jasprit Bumrah kept Mumbai in the hunt with his tidy overs and two wickets, getting rid of Dwayne Bravo and Ambati Rayudu. The premier Indian pacer produced 13 dot balls in his testing overs. Young leg-spinner Rahul Chahar also played a key role in the middle overs as he too created pressure by bowling 13 dot balls.
Both teams were tied at three IPL titles each heading into the finale with Mumbai holding the upper hand, having beaten CSK thrice earlier in the competition.
The heart-stopping finish came after a disciplined bowling performance from CSK who restricted Mumbai Indians to 149 for eight.
CSK, have now lost to Mumbai for the third time in four finals.
