Cricket conversations cross 5.7M; Rohit Sharma emerges as most popular social media player: Sprinklr insights

New Delhi: In the match on June 29, 2024, India emerged victorious against South Africa to clinch the T20 World Cup title after 13 years. Held in Barbados, India won by a narrow margin. 

Key performances included innings from Virat Kohli, who was playing his final T20 international and was named Player of the Match. Jasprit Bumrah's bowling also played a role in India's triumph, securing their second T20 World Cup title.

Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, and Ravindra Jadeja, announced their retirement from the T20 format in the aftermath of the win - making this World Cup a roller coaster of emotions for Indian fans. 

With the assistance of Sprinklr Insights, here’s a glimpse of the many conversations Indian fans are having in the online sphere about team India through their many matches in the tournament so far - looking at the high points and most talked about moments and players that are driving the excitement for the tournament.

An Explosion in Fan Conversations

As the cricket fever takes over the country, fans sparked over 5.717 million conversations about cricket from late May to present day, with over 1.293 billion engagements.

A majority of these conversations took place on the platforms of X (formerly known as Twitter) and Youtube, where cricket fan communities are the most active. Across the joint platforms of X, Youtube, Instagram, Reddit, Facebook, and news outlets, the combined conversations generated 486.67 billion+ views in reach. Of this number, over 89.41% of all conversations showcased positive sentiments as fans shared their excitement online.
   
India also leads the global number of conversations about cricket surrounding the World Cup across social media - generating over 1Mn conversations.

As India take grand finals win, IND vs SA emerges as the new cricket rivalry to watch

India’s victory drove the online world into a fervor that generated over 1,54,997 mentions and 24,480,256 earned engagements. 

Rohit, Virat and Hardik emerge as the most popular players in the day of the finals
Virat Kohli was awarded the Player of the Match for the grand finals for his innings against South Africa, while Rohit Sharma emerged as the most popular player on social media with 70,222,648 earned engagements for his consistent leadership and performance. 

Oman and USA among top 5 most popular teams

The country came together to rally behind Team India for the World Cup, making them favorites among Indian fans. South Africa also remained favorites in online conversations, followed closely by Oman and Australia.

While the latter would not make it out of the group stage, Team USA surprised the world by making it to the Super 8; and has also gone viral among Indian fans for the many formerly Indian players who play on the US national team - who also secured an upset win versus Pakistan. 

The US vs IND fixture generated over 51,000 conversations across social media, as fans found it in their hearts to appreciate the US side as well, with 5 Indian origin players who played their hearts out.

Brands join in to celebrate India’s big win

While fans rejoiced the Men In Blue’s victory, brands too joined in the celebration with online conversations. Whatsapp was the most mentioned brand in online conversations about the World Cup with close to 25K mentions across social media, being followed closely by Hotstar at close to 20K mentions, Dream 11 with close to 16K mentions, and Amazon with 13K mentions.