CSK vs RCB: When a fixture became a feeling

All eyes were on the chennai man at the center of the RCB dressing room. Dinesh Karthik, straddling two worlds as a broadcaster and late-career professional cricketer, broke into an evocative post-game speech. "We all know how proud our franchise is and how our fans are... and we gave them a treat to watch. Also, you've got to understand the gravity of this game..."

Karthik was talking at the close of a match that sliced through the haze of fours and sixes that was IPL 2024. The clock had ticked well past midnight but outside, on the Queens, Cubbon, and MG Road roads embracing the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, an impromptu, full-blown after-party raged. What began with banter and a celebration of a memorable turnaround of RCB's season slowly descended into a public nuisance. Well past midnight, a group of fans scaled one of the fire trucks near the stadium to hoist an RCB flag, at which point the local police swung in to quickly restore order.

A little distance away, on the internet, amid the generous exchange of vitriol, a different kind of policing took over: "What are you even celebrating?", "Tell us, how many IPL titles you have again?","Can't wait to welcome RCB to Chennai..."

As the IPL enters adulthood, the Chinnaswamy clash of May 18, 2024, may have become the flashpoint that turned CSK vs RCB into something more than a marketing construct. For the first time in a while, RCB, CSK, and their respective fans entered that fixture standing at a crossroads that only one could traverse. The fact they had the fate of the other in their hands caused the supporters to identify with one another in a way they could not tolerate.

So, how did it get to this point

Interestingly, in 2009, RCB beat CSK in the first-ever knockout game between these two franchises. Any notion of a rivalry though was continuously smothered by the general excellence of the chennai teams that followed. CSK won every match of note, including a Qualifier 1 and a Final in 2011, and a Qualifier 2 in 2015. However, even amid the blur of games in the IPL, moments and feelings from this fixture refused to fade.

In 2013, with two required off the final ball, RCB seemed to have clinched victory when RP Singh had ravindra jadeja caught at third man, only for the bowler to foot-fault, handing CSK a no-ball and the win. The cameras panned to virat kohli, whose data-face cycled through emotions of nervous anticipation, ecstasy, and devastation in three seconds.

A year earlier, kohli was at the center of another heartbreak, conceding 28 runs in a single over to Albie Morkel when RCB needed to defend 43 off 12. In 2018, MS dhoni famously crashed RCB's party with an ice-cold 70* off 34, finishing with a classic six. But a year later, he fell just short trying to get 26 in the final over. Almost always, RCB were the ones trying to puncture the great CSK bubble, and also the ones left picking up the pieces.

No titles no away win in chepauk since 2008, and a lopsided 21-11 head-to-head record in CSK's favor: by every metric, this is a rivalry that shouldn't exist. At 16-14, CSK has a closer contest with punjab Kings. Their bouts with mumbai Indians tooare fought on more equal footing, with both teams tied on five titles. But rivalries in sports aren't built on numbers alone. They are forged by geographies, histories, and identities. Karnataka and tamil Nadu, where the two teams are based, share deep economic and cultural ties, with large tamil populations in karnataka and vice versa. Yet, beneath the surdata-face, tensions always simmer, rooted in language politics and, most infamously, the long-standing dispute over sharing the kaveri River.

These political undercurrents have surdata-faced at the Ranji Trophy level. Former india fast bowler venkatesh prasad re…