Sports
Mumbai Indians create history with 25th win against KKR
Five-time champions set a new IPL record with a dominant victory at Wankhede
MUMBAI: Mumbai Indians kicked off their IPL 2026 campaign in style, demolishing Kolkata Knight Riders in a high-octane clash at Wankhede Stadium on Sunday. Led by Hardik Pandya, MI raced to 224/4 in 19.1 overs, chasing down 221 with ease, marking their highest successful chase in IPL history and the sixth-best overall in the league.
The win also cemented a historic milestone: MI have now beaten KKR 25 times in 36 encounters, the most any team has ever won against a single opponent in IPL history. KKR remain stuck on 11 wins.
At Wankhede, MI’s dominance is even more pronounced — 11 victories in 13 games against KKR, setting a record at a single venue. The next best record is nine wins by KKR and SRH against Punjab Kings.
MI’s chase of 200-plus totals has now succeeded six times, the second-most in IPL history, trailing only PBKS with eight such wins. The victory also breaks the franchise’s infamous opener jinx: for the first time since IPL 2012, MI have started the season with a win.
Next up, Mumbai Indians face Delhi Capitals on April 4, looking to maintain momentum and continue rewriting IPL records.
Sports
IPL 2026 sees fans shift from viewers to active digital participants
From fantasy leagues to real-time play, engagement now goes beyond the match
MUMBAI: As the Indian Premier League gears up for its 2026 season, a quieter but far more profound transformation is taking place off the pitch. The modern cricket fan is no longer just watching the game. They are actively shaping the experience around it.
Over recent seasons, fan behaviour has shifted from passive viewership to continuous digital participation. What was once centred on match-day broadcasts has evolved into a year-round engagement cycle driven by apps, gaming layers and personalised content journeys.
Today’s IPL fan is as likely to be managing a fantasy team or predicting match outcomes as they are watching live play. Fans are building private leagues, using in-game boosters and interacting with real-time notifications, often consuming highlights within minutes of key moments. In one recent season alone, more than 400,000 fantasy users created over 75,000 leagues and deployed upwards of 200,000 gameplay boosters, underscoring the scale of this behavioural shift.
The change is not just about numbers, but depth. One leading franchise reported a 5.7 times increase in average fan engagement time after investing in a mobile-first digital ecosystem. It also built a base of over 2 million first-party fan profiles and achieved 64 percent in-season retention. Over three years, such digital investments contributed to a 40 percent rise in enterprise value, highlighting how engagement is translating into business impact.
SI SVP India Chintan Shah said, “The IPL is no longer defined by match-day consumption alone. Fan behaviour now extends across a connected ecosystem of content, interaction and participation, where engagement builds progressively over time rather than peaking around live moments. This evolution is reshaping how sports properties think about audience value.”
Similar patterns are emerging across the league. Another franchise recorded a 4.6 times jump in engagement time and a 2.4 times increase in app screen views, alongside more than 500,000 app downloads. These gains point to a growing appetite for deeper, more interactive experiences beyond the match window.
Video remains a powerful entry point, with digital platforms collectively delivering over 2 billion views around match content. However, industry observers note that video alone is no longer enough to build loyalty. It is the interactive layers around these moments that keep fans coming back.
Loyalty programmes and gamified experiences are also playing a key role. In one case, over 400,000 app downloads were driven through integrated rewards systems, while in-app campaigns during peak match periods recorded response rates of 50 to 65 percent. Such figures suggest fans are not just watching but willingly participating when the experience feels timely and rewarding.
At the heart of this shift is a move towards owned fan relationships. While social media continues to drive reach, franchises are increasingly focusing on direct engagement through unified logins, CRM systems and personalised content journeys. The goal is to understand fan preferences more deeply, from favourite players to content habits and frequency of interaction.
As IPL 2026 begins, the league is no longer just a broadcast spectacle. It has become a dynamic, interactive platform where sport, data and digital behaviour converge. The real contest now is not only for viewership, but for attention, participation and long-term loyalty.
