India and Pakistan dominate social media race during World Cup

Gopal P
Indian and Pakistani players shake hands after the match on Sunday

The India-Pakistan match last Sunday at Adelaide was historic in many ways, right from seeing a packed stadium of close to 42,000 fans to being the most watched sporting event on the planet. But the record-breaking feats did not stop there.

The match between the arch-rivals went viral on social networking service Twitter as well, with nearly 10,000 people tweeting immediately after India beat Pakistan. The sub-continental teams are generating far more social media interest than home teams Australia and New Zealand during this World Cup.

A study by Twitter found the most frequently mentioned players on Twitter were from India or Pakistan – India’s man of the moment Virat Kohli getting the most attention. The most mentioned match, by hashtag, was India versus Pakistan, followed by Australia's game against England.

During India's game against Pakistan, Twitter mentions are said to have peaked at 9990 a minute when the match had just finished.

India and Pakistan, two of the most populous nations in the world have a cricket-mad following, with a strong presence on social media too. This humongous presence of netizens from both nations across the social media space helped the game get a good deal of promotion before and during the match.

Edited by Staff Editor