Whoooooooooaaaaaa.Yesterday had the most excellent 5 minutes of the year so far. Amazing. Unique. Fun. I am a huge cricket fan, but not completely bowled over by the 20:20 game if Iam honest. So when I saw, on Twitter that England were playing their first match against Australia, I wasn’t really that bothered. It was about 9.00am (UK time) when I found out we were playing. On the tube journey into the office, I picked up from various Tweeters, including the ex England skipper, Michael Vaughan and injured all-rounder Stuart Broad plus a few Twitter mates who were watching at home on ‘home husband duties’ that Australia had decided to bat. They got off to a flying start accumulating runs via Shane Watson, whilst we were travelling through Earl’s Court. Then my District Line train went into the underground section of the London Underground and my signal was lost, along with my Twitter feed.
As I exited Temple station and came up into the daylight, Australia were making very decent progess at 92-2 (per the @ECB-cricket). By the time I got to the office, around 9.45am, Australia were on 122-3. Then work kicked in and Twitter was put away in the box whilst I got my day planned, dealt with email and talked about West Ham’s lucky victory over Birmingham in the 1st leg of the Carling Cup semi final. Three phone calls later, I thought I would check back and saw via @junioroufc that Australia were 140/4 with 12 balls left. Then the phone went and I was off Twitter again for 20 minutes.
When I checked back Australia had ended their innings on 157-4 and then settled down with my iPhone and watched events unfold – i was behind the timeline, but through Twitter, I caught up so that the result was actually in real time, complete with the suspense, tension and anxiety.
@junioroufc felt it was 25 runs light. Ex England captain @VaughanCricket felt the score was ‘just below par and Tait would be the key’ whilst @homeofcricket stated ‘ Majority of you think England are on top. Potential record breaking chase coming up in Adelaide then! Hope to see @eoin16 in action at last!’
Here’s the prize parts of my Twitter feed – many Tweets have been left out, but I have included ones that tell the story as well as just appear in my timeline to add some bizarre twists to this wonderful game.
@VaughanCricket then started the innings off with ‘Bell and Davies walk out to you look good on the dance floor…arctic Monkeys.. Sheffield legends..Music Mecca’
(Mr Vaughan being from Sheffield and a legendary Sheffield Wednesday supporter) and then the game really started….in between other real world things happening:-
@junioroufc ‘Bell Dropped 1st ball!!! #T20 #EngAusT20’
@guardianfilm ‘How best to win and Oscar – try female oral sex! Hadley Freeman’
@timloveljoy ‘ How long do butterflies live? How about we set up a business sending boxes of live butterflies to people’
@gamersvoice ‘The hashtag for Gamers’ Voice Parliamentary Games Day is simply #gamesday’
@cidergirl ‘I wonder if postie can be arsed to deliver my CDs today’
@leongreen ‘A snap election says @tomwatson a move that would blind-side Labour and end the Lib Dems?’
@patlike ‘HAVE IT – source – Sony to announce PSP2 in Tokyo on Jan 27th’
@timlovejoy ‘ I don’t want to send bugs, I want to send butterflies’
@guardiannews ‘UK trade deficit hits record high’
@oneadayaproject ‘Hi everyone! On this grey miserable, rainy moring why not read some entertaining blogs to cheer yourself up? oneadaybloggers.wordpress.com’
@johnnyminkley ‘Twitter! I want to speak to gamers (ideally London based) who regularly buy pre-owned games. Is that you? Tweet me pls!
@ECB_cricket ‘England 85-3 and need 73 to win from 59 balls #T20
@PaulHayward_gnm ‘Avram Grant says he’s lived with rumour since Day 1’ Will the club beat this and push it to Day Minus-1 ? ‘
@junioroufc ‘Classy stuff @Eoin16 great placement #T20’
@GrahamBM RT @jamesclay; ‘Blog post; Learning Without Frontiers, some thoughts http://bit.ly/eG2Ar9 #lwf11′
@cidergirl ‘As a completist should I get the complete Star Wars on Blu-Ray or continue my stance that ignoring the prequels will make them go away?’
@StauartBroad8 ‘Gonna be a real tight finish this’
@ Homeofcricket ‘Rats. @eoin16 gone in the #T20 – big wicket for the Aussies. 28 runs needed from 28 balls. Come on England!’
@pinotblush ‘RT @BenWinterArt: New Bond film to reflect government cuts as Daniel Craig returns to the role of 005’
@Arusbridger ‘Who is paying Glenn Mulcaire’s six-figure legal fees as he fights demands to reveal all? #coulson’
@fletch5live ‘England on a right wobble now!!!’
@MayorofLondon ‘Been doing my bit this morning planting some of the 20,000 new trees for our RE:LEAF campaign.Well done too the volunteers’
@timlovejoy ‘If you can, get this cricket on, its getting v exciting’
@jimrossignol ‘I wrote an article for design/architecture mag Icon, and it’s in the February edition. It’s about videogame cities. Looks snazzy.’
@ECB_cricket ‘ 21 needed from 22 after that 6 from Woakes’ #T20 #Eng/AusT20
@junioroufc ‘Poop’
@PennyRed ‘I actually have too much to write this week, which is a problem, because whenever I’m working on something I’m thinking about the next thing’
@Batsphinx ‘Technologhy historians and/or wise elders. Was there a price difference between VHS and Betamax? Or were they level pegging?
@PaddyOrrell ‘anyone got a electronic/techno spotify playlist? Anyone?
@timlovejoy ‘England 15 to win off 12 balls’
@junioroufc ’12 from 9 needed’
@junioroufc ‘Yes’
@junioroufc ‘6 from 8 keep calm’
@junioroufc ‘8 from 8 even’
@ECB_cricket ‘England need 4 runs from the last 6 balls’
@junioroufc ‘Bowled him! Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo 4 from 5’
@junioroufc ‘Hero time’
@timlovejoy ‘No run. 4 from 4 ‘t20 this is too tight!!!’
@timlovejoy ‘No run! 4 from 3 #t20′
@SarahPalinUSA ‘ America’s Enduring Strength http://fb.me/PfjWdUip
@junioroufc ‘2 from 2 …Come on!!! Woakes!’
@BBCBusiness ‘Mince pies help lift Greggs sales http://bbc.in/h5YYje
@junioroufc ‘Yes!! Can’t lose’ #T20 #EngAusT20
@timlovejoy ‘Scores are tied, last ball #t20 f*ck me
@nesta_uk’ In Scotland, over 50 and have an idea to improve your community? Apply for Age Unlimited Scotland before 7 Feb deadline’
@Peston ‘Exclusive: Eric Daniels of Lloyds is to receive £2M bonus and more than £2M from long term incentive scheme’
@ECB_cricket ‘Scores level! England need 1 from 1 ball #T20′
@junioroufc ‘Come on stick it up em again boys!!! Run your Bollocks off England!!! 1 from 1 #T20’
@timlovejoy ‘Yeeeeeeeees we got the run. Brilliant #t20’
@ajmurray ‘That was never in doubt. ha ha #T20’
@HomeofCricket ‘What a #T20 match in Adelaide! Scores tied with 1 ball left..Woakes hits winning runs from it. Great #cricket’
@daraobrian ’20/20 really is a brilliant format’
@ECB_cricket ‘That’s England’s 8th #T20 win in a row’
@daraobrian ‘And I know I’m supposed t o write t20, or something. But if 20twenty teaches us anything, it’s that tradition is bunk’.
And there we have it. A thrilling match followed and ‘watched’ on Twitter in amongst some other great Tweets from a mixed bag of people, some wonderful and some clearly just mad. Phew. Twitter what a novel thing you are. Utterly unique.Sometimes special. Often compelling. Most of all mad.
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