Mumbai Indians the most tweeted about team during the league stage of IPL 7 and Virat Kohli most popular cricketer

Virat Kohli – most popular player on social media

Mumbai 27th May 2014: Mumbai Indians may have just made it to the IPL playoffs after edging out Rajasthan Royals in a thriller but they remain the most tweeted about team during the league stage of IPL 7.

According to figures from the IPL on the Twitter page of iplt20.com, MI won the battle on Twitter during the league stage with 360K related tweets till May 25, followed by CSK on 248K and RCB with 214K tweets.

The MI-RR knockout thriller was the most tweeted match of the league stage. No surprises that Mumbai's #BestMatchEver win on Sunday night was the most tweeted match of the season as they went on to qualify for the playoffs with a last-ball six. Mumbai is second on the list when it comes to followers this season after CSK. On the all-time followers list for IPL teams, CSK, MI and RCB continue to be the top 3 teams but the interesting story this season has been this year’s league toppers Kings XI Punjab, who have not only moved up on the all-time follower list from 8th to 6th but have also registered the highest growth percentage of followers (34.85%) during the league stage this season.

On the all-time list of IPL teams with the most followers on Twitter, CSK consolidated their No.1 position by adding 90,000 new followers during the league stage, followed by RCB with 80,000 and Mumbai Indians with 70,000.

RCB feature in 5 of the top 10 most tweeted matches of the league stage, the most of any team. RCB might not have made the Playoffs, but fans clearly enjoyed tweeting about them. Their matches in the top 10 include the 2 run loss after 'Lynnsanity' against Kolkata Knight Riders (No.2); AB Steyn-gunning Dale and Sunrisers Hyderabad in Bangalore (No. 4); Losing to Mumbai Indians at the Wankhede (No.5); Meltdown against Rajasthan Royals at home (No.9) and the meek surrender to Kings XI Punjab in Abu Dhabi (No.10).

Virat Kohli went past MS Dhoni during the league stage to become the most followed IPL player of all-time and currently has 3.2 million followers. He is the only IPL player to have more than 3 million followers. Kohli and Dhoni are followed by Sehwag, Yuvraj and Raina on this list.

Of all the IPL captains, Kohli was the most mentioned throughout the league stages with more than 161,000 tweets related to him, followed by MS Dhoni with 93,000.

Fan engagement with IPL on Twitter has seen a significant jump this season. During the league stage of IPL 7, tweets mentioning the official handle @IPL are up 24.43 % over 2013 and tweets mentioning the official hashtag #PepsiIPL are up an impressive 47.48 % over 2013.

Rank	Match	Hashtag	Date	Match Story
1	Mumbai Indians vs Rajasthan Royals	#MIvsRR OR #RRvsMI	25-May-2014	MI pull off impossible last ball six chase.
2	Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Kolkata Knight Riders	#RCBvsKKR OR #KKRvsRCB	24-Apr-2014	Lynnsanity helps KKR to a 2 run win
3	Chennai Super Kings vs Kings XI Punjab	#CSKvsKXIP OR #KXIPvsCSK	18-Apr-2014	Maxwell plunders as Punjab chase 205
4	Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Sunrisers Hyderabad	#RCBvsSRH OR #SRHvsRCB	4-May-2014	AB takes Steyn to cleaners, wins game for RCB
5	Mumbai Indians vs Royal Challengers Bangalore	#MIvsRCB OR #RCBvsMI	6-May-2014	Second win at home for MI
6	Kings XI Punjab vs Chennai Super Kings	#KXIPvsCSK OR #CSKvsKXIP	7-May-2014	Kings XI post highest total of IPL (231), win
7	Rajasthan Royals vs Kings XI Punjab	#RRvsKXIP OR #KXIPvsRR	20-Apr-2014	Maxwell and Miller show as Kings XI chase 191
8	Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Rajasthan Royals	#RCBvsRR OR #RRvsRCB	11-May-2014	Faulkner, Smith smash 65 in 3 overs to chase 190
9	Kings XI Punjab vs Royal Challengers Bangalore	#KXIPvsRCB OR #RCBvsKXIP	28-Apr-2014	KXIP make it 5 wins in a row with comfortable chase
10	Royal Challengers Bangalore vs Mumbai Indians	#RCBvsMI OR #MIvsRCB	19-Apr-2014	RCB restrict MI to 115, chase easily