From Chicken Biryani to Samosas, here’s what Indians ate while watching the IPL

• Indian food unicorns Zomato and Swiggy hit the ball out of the park this Indian Premier League with their crazy discounts, that had users who don’t even watch IPL stay tuned to the game.
• Through Zomato, Delhi led the race with 1.5 million predictions.
• On Swiggy, Chicken Biryani emerged as the favourite order. No surprises there.

Moving on from restaurants and loud screening parties, it seems that Indians have found their new favourite way to watch the Indian Premier League - with friends and food at home. But with the onslaught of discounts from food ordering apps, Indians have ordered food for as little as ₹2!

Food unicorns like Zomato and Swiggy pulled a yorker during the IPL by introducing games that offer discounts and a shot at predicting the winner of the match.

Zomato started with the Zomato Premier League which offered users a straight up 40% discount on food orders along with an additional 30% cashback from their order if they predicted the right winner for the day’s match. Through Zomato, which as of May 2 saw 14 million predictions from 224 cities, helped users save ₹150 million.

Meanwhile, Swiggy took a more instant approach with its Swiggy6, where users could get a 60% discount if they ordered within 6 minutes of a batsman hitting a six. What’s more, Swiggy partnered and integrated its app with Hotstar, which allowed users to watch and order food at the same time. Orders on Swiggy, by order numbers and GMV) shot up by 30% during match timings (7-11 pm) compared to non-cricket days.

But when it comes to the most asked question – 'What to eat?' the two startups showed some interesting results.

Swiggy results showed that the top dishes across India were Chicken Biryani, Paneer Butter Masala, Chicken Fried Rice, Kadai Paneer, Masala Dosa, Veg Biryani and Tadoori Chicken. But one Swiggy user in Ahmedabad showed love for IPL and samosas by ordering a total of 1140 samosas during this season.

Meanwhile, Zomato managed to trace the winner for its IPL predictions – Chennai Super Kings led Zomato’s Vote Board, with most support coming in from Madurai. However, when it came to predictions, Delhi led the race with 1.5 million predictions, although Warangal had the most correct predictions. Surprisingly, Tripura placed its bet on Sunrisers Hyderabad and boasts of 100% win ratio when voting for it.

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