Fact Check: The newly married couple did not watch the recent India-Pak match

This photo has gone viral on X (formerly Twiter), Facebook, Instagram, and everywhere it is claimed that it is the newlyweds who came to watch the match between India and Pakistan held on September 2, 2023.

The newspaper, Kashmir Dispatch, also shared a photo on Facebook saying, "India-Pakistan match craze, Newlyweds who came to watch the epic match between the rivals at Pallekele Cricket Stadium in Sri Lanka."

The photo was also published on the Facebook page Idiotic Minds with the caption, "The newly married couple came to watch the India-Pakistan cricket match yesterday. Unfortunately, the match was stopped due to rain."

Fact check

The viral image of the newly wed couple is a screen grab of the video shared a few days ago on YouTube. The image of the couple is from the match held on August 31, 2023 in Multan stadium but its being claimed as the image when India vs Pakistan match was held on September 2, 2023.

A Google reverse image search for the viral photo yielded a video link published on YouTube. Accordingly, this video was published one day before the match between India and Pakistan at Pallekele, Sri Lanka, which was held on September 2. The caption of the video reads, "Newlyweds come to watch the exciting match between Pakistan and Nepal at the Multan Cricket Stadium."

Pakistani newspaper MinuteMirror.com.Pk published a story on September 1 in which it reported that a newly wed couple, fans of Pakistan star batsman Babar Azam, had come to watch the match at the National Stadium in Multan.

Although the report does not mention between which countries the match was played, it can be noted that a match was played between Pakistan and Nepal on August 31, the previous date of publication of this report.

A YouTube channel called Cricket in Blood published the video clip of the newlyweds on August 31.

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A YouTube channel called Thrill Pakistan published a 1.19-minute video of the newlyweds on September 1. The background voice in the video explains that they have come to watch the Pakistan-Nepal match in Multan.

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So the claim that the newlyweds came to watch the India-Pakistan cricket match is misleading.