Virat Kohli’s match-winning knock halts Diwali shopping in India

The much awaited clash between India and Pakistan in the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 on Sunday, October 23 garnered a lot of attention from all over the world for what proved to be a thriller of a contest. Virat Kohli was adjudged the Player of the Match for his match-winning 82* off just 53 balls.

Fans and members of the cricketing fraternity were in awe of the historic performance displayed by the chase master. As the match stretched till the final over, fans, especially the ones in India halted every work of theirs just to get a glimpse of the spectacular show put on by Kohli.

The highly anticipated clash took place on the eve of Diwali, one of the major festivals of India. It is understood that the majority of the cricket fans put their Diwali shopping on halt and were glued to their television sets and phones to witness the match.

Virat Kohli’s masterclass stops Diwali shopping

Mihir Vora, the chief investment officer of Max Life, took to Twitter to explain how the innings by Kohli stopped Diwali shopping in the country. According to him, the market ‘dipped’ as the match picked up momentum.

“Virat Kohli stopped India shopping yesterday!! UPI transactions from 9 a.m. yesterday till evening – as the match became interesting, online shopping stopped – and sharp rebound after the match!,” tweeted Mihir Vora.

The ongoing festival witnessed a shopping rush in the morning with the UPI transaction volume up as high as 15% at around 10:30 am-12:30 pm as compared to the level recorded at 9:00 am. Throughout the day, there was constant decline in the transactions due to the match. However, the transaction volume declined further when Kohli was scripting his historic innings.

India concluded the tricky chase on the last ball, with Kohli and Hardik Pandya putting up a strong batting performance in the crunch moments of the game.