In front of a 90,000+ crowd, Virat Kohli led India to a victory in a high-pressure game against Pakistan. The match was streamed by over 1.8 crore people on Disney Hotstar, and watched by countless others on their television sets. As Virat Kohli took India's score up in the match, people remained glued to their screens resulting in a decline in UPI transactions.
With Diwali just a day away, there was a huge jump in the transactions on the app BharatPe from 9 am till 1.30 pm yesterday. But as soon as the match started, at 1.30 pm, transactions gradually started declining, indicating that people were choosing the India vs Pakistan match over festive shopping.
"UPI transactions from 9 a.m. yesterday till evening - as the match became interesting, online shopping stopped - and sharp rebound after the match," Max Life Chief Investment Officer Mihir Vora said in a tweet.
Chasing 160, India was reduced to 31/4 in less than seven overs. Led by Virat Kohli's 82, India successfully achieved the target to seal a four-wicket in a last-ball finish. In a match that had more turns than a Formula 1 track, India scored 28 runs, lost 2 wickets and ran 3 byes off a free-hit in the last 8 balls. And that doesn't cover even half the drama of the match.
The excitement among the fans was described by actor Ayushmann Khurrana who was travelling on a flight.
"I watched the final two overs inside the Mumbai-Chandigarh flight just before taking off with the passengers glued to their cell phones. I'm sure the cricket fanatic pilot delayed it deliberately by 5 mins, and nobody was complaining," the actor said in a tweet.
The actor said that there was a collective uproar of applause in the flight as India hit the winning runs. "All this was happening while we were full throttle on the runway. Great timing by the flight captain," Ayushmann Khurrana added.
