A 34-second video has gone viral across social media platforms, claiming to show the Ganesh Aarti being played at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium as fans celebrated the Indian men’s cricket team’s 6-wicket victory over arch-rivals Pakistan in their Champions Trophy encounter on Sunday (February 23).
The archived versions of the posts can be seen here and here.
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Fact Check
Newschecker noticed that the viral video seemed to be a combination of at least two separate clips, considering the first part showed a light show filling the stadium and confetti thrown onto the ground while the later part had fans just waving their mobile phone flashlights as a match was in session.
Also, a screengrab at the 00:18 mark showed the digital scoreboard displaying England’s score to be 175/8, contradicting the claim that the viral video was from the India vs Pakistan match.
We then ran a reverse image search of keyframes of the first part of the video, comprising the light show, which led us to an extended version on Instagram, uploaded by @sanchitd43 on January 19, stating that it was from the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
One of the hashtags read #wankhede50, following which a relevant keyword search led us to multiple news reports, seen here and here, stating that there was a grand celebration of Mumbai’s iconic Wankhede Stadium’s 50th anniversary, held on January 19, 2025. “The grand spectacle, held on January 19, saw the presence of cricket legends including Sachin Tendulkar, Sunil Gavaskar, Ravi Shastri, Diana Edulji, Rohit Sharma and Ajinkya Rahane in a packed stadium. The memorable evening also witnessed mesmerizing performances by Ajay-Atul and Avadhoot Gupte followed by a breathtaking laser show,” read an HT report, dated January 23, 2025, stating that the Mumbai Cricket Association (MCA) hosted a series of spectacular events to mark the stadium’s golden jubilee. Similar videos of the laser show can be seen here, here, here and here, confirming that the Ganesh aarti was played during the 50th anniversary celebrations.
We found that the second part of the viral video, too, was taken from another Instagram post by the same user, Sanchit Desai, uploaded on February 13, 2025, stating that it was from the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad, when AR Rahman’s ‘Vande Mataram’ song was played during a break in a match.
We learnt that India faced England in an ODI on February 12, 2025, which the former won by 142 runs. We looked up the scorecard and found that England was 175/8 at one point in the match, as seen in the screengrab, further confirming that the viral video is not from the India vs Pakistan match.
Conclusion
Edited video went viral with false claim that the Ganesh Aarti was played at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium to celebrate Indian victory over Pakistan in their Champions Trophy match.
Sources
Instagram post, Sanchit Desai, January 19, 2025
Instagram post, Sanchit Desai, February 13, 2025
