#INDvSA lights up Twitter as India creates history on the field

22 February 2015. History. India (@BCCI) team made it two wins out of two at #CWC15 with a stunning performance over South Africa (@OfficialCSA). It was their first ever win against the Proteas in a @CricketWorldCup match. Here’s a closer look at how #INDvSA played out on Twitter.

In a match of firsts, Indian cricket legend and @ICC Cricket World Cup ambassador Sachin Tendulkar (@sachin_rt) came out to cheer for the Men in Blue. It was his first ever experience of a World Cup match as a spectator since his retirement. This Tweet was definitely one for the ages.

And @sachin_rt also sent out an @ICC Twitter Mirror message:

Inspired by the Sachin magic and the performance on the field, there were 69.2 million live Tweet impressions* for #INDvSA during the #CWC15 match window. This reaffirms once again Twitter’s status as the second screen for live cricket and sport in India.

We also saw a total of around 770,000 Tweets related to the match*.

Shikhar Dhawan (@SDhawan25) was the Man of the Match for his fluent century and he came by to share the moment with the large Indian fan contingent via @TwitterMirror.

The moment when @SDhawan25 struck his 100th run sparked off a large peak of conversation on Twitter during the match, but interestingly, fans were most excited as India inched to victory. Of the top 5 most Tweeted moments*, four of them are from the second innings as the Indian bowlers cleaned up the South African tail.

Not surprisingly, @SDhawan25 also tops the list of the most-mentioned players from India while Hashim Amla (@AmlaHash) was the most talked about Proteas player*. Skipper MS Dhoni (@msdhoni) and Ajinkya Rahane (@ajinkyarahane88) for his swashbuckling knock of 79 off just 60 balls were the second and third most spoken about Men in Blue, respectively.

India’s historic victory saw a Sunday full of magic moments on Twitter. Here are some of the best moments from #INDvSA:

The International Cricket Council’s (@ICC) used Twitter as the second screen for the #AskCaptain integration where Twitter user @KanAlosh’s question was answered live on global TV by India captain @msdhoni!

Tweet @ICC with #AskCaptain #CWC15 for a chance to get your question answered by the winning captain of every match!

The @ICC also used @Vine throughout the match to bring fans closer to the action right from the stands.

There was more to come post match as @ICC used Twitter’s video player to Tweet out a recap of the day’s play with their #CWCDaily show a few hours after the match, even featuring fan Tweets in the episode.

Finally, our special Cricket World Cup timeline, accessible via a Twitter search for #CWC15 or the official match hashtags, really brought to life the #INDvSA match as their one stop for Tweets, commentary and expert analysis, plus photos and videos before, during and after the match.

@BCCI is on a roll with two consecutive wins and they now face UAE (@EmiratesCricket) on Saturday, February 28. Come be a part of the buzz using #INDvUAE and #CWC15. Can’t wait to catch up with you on Twitter for the next India match!

*Based on internal Twitter Data