The Indian national cricket team made it worthwhile for advertisers, who reportedly shelled out $48,000 for a 10-second advertising slot during Sunday’s ICC T20 Cricket World Cup against arch-rivals Pakistan, and fans who splurged up to $2,000 for a $300 ticket.
At a sold-out Nassau County Stadium, which was packed to the rafters for the much-anticipated match, Indian bowlers produced the goods after they were bowled out for a paltry 119 in 19 overs in the rain-delayed match.
Pakistan were 50-1 at one stage, but the Indian bowling attack, led by Man of the Match Jasprit Bumrah (3-14), restricted them to 113-7 in the allotted 20 overs.
The win by 6 runs takes India to the top of Group A with two wins from two matches, while Pakistan are yet to open their account after two defeats, including one to hosts and minnows of the tournament, the United States.
As many as 34,028 fans officially attended the match in the temporary stadium that has a capacity of 34,000, and was built specifically for the tournament at a cost of $30 million. The organisers expected to collect back approximately half of that amount with the India-Pakistan match.
Highly sought-after match tickets
General tickets for the match were sold out within minutes when sale was first opened in February. At that time, they were oversubscribed 200 times. USA Today reported that resellers SeatGeek were selling tickets for an average price of $1,366. Hospitality tickets started at $2,500, with the highest priced seat for Diamond Club, listed at $10,000 on ICC’s website.
A Bloomberg report quoted Santosh N, managing partner at D&P Advisory, as saying the broadcasters were charging $48,000 for a 10-second spot from advertisers for the match.
Early rains delayed the start of the match, and after Pakistan won the toss and bowled just one over, it returned to cause another 35-minute delay.
India were in trouble soon, losing Virat Kohli minutes after resumption, and captain Rohit Sharma was second to go with the score on 19. Wicket-keeper Rishabh Pant was the highest scorer for India with 42 runs in 31 balls as Indian batters struggled on a tricky pitch. Seamers Naseem Shah and Harris Rauf took three wickets each.
With sun coming out, batting seemed to have become easier in Pakistan’s innings, but except for opener Mohammed Rizwan (31 off 44 balls), none of their batsmen could come to terms with the Indian bowlers. Bumrah took the prized wickets of Rizwan, captain Babar Azam and Iftikhar Ahmed, and bowled 15 dot balls in his four overs.
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