800m tweets sent in Cricket World Cup group stages, India tops rankings

The ICC Cricket World Cup is heading into its knockout phases and, in countries where the game is popular, people are feeling a mix of nerves and anticipation. And if the group stages were anything to go by, there should be plenty of action on Twitter too.

According to the social media network, some 800-million tweets were sent during the tournament’s opening matches.

The match which saw the most action was India’s victory over Pakistan, with tweets during the match window viewed more than 118-million times. In fact, India featured in three of the most tweeted matches. Given its massive population and love of cricket that shouldn’t be all that surprising.

The five most followed matches were:

1. India vs. Pakistan on 15 February
2. South Africa vs. India on 22 February
3. West Indies vs. India on 6 March
4. England vs. Bangladesh on 9 March
5. South Africa vs. Pakistan on 7 March

India also dominates the most tweeted about moments of the tournament so far:

1. India is victorious by 76 runs in the 15 February match against Pakistan
2. India defeats South Africa by 130 runs in their 22 February game
3. India’s Virat Kohli brings up his century Pakistan (@Official_PCB) in the 15 February match
4. Bangladesh win by 15 runs, knocking England out of the Cup on 9 March
5. India’s Virat Kohli is dismissed for 107 runs against Pakistan (Official_PCB) on 15 February

Read more: 2014 FIFA World Cup opening match: the Twitter numbers

Interestingly the one area where India doesn’t dominate is in Twitter’s player of the tournament stakes.

Using a points allocation system (where the most-mentioned player in a match is awarded three points, the second most-mentioned is awarded two and third most-mentioned is given one) the Twitter player of the tournament from the groups stages is New Zealand star Brendon McCullum. Pakistan’s Misbah Ul-Haq is ranked second, with Kumar Sangakkara, scorer of a remarkable four consecutive hundreds, in third place.

The most retweeted tweet of the tournament so far meanwhile came from Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who tweeted his congratulations to the national team after beating Pakistan.

Congrats Team India. Well played. We are all very proud of you.

— Narendra Modi (@narendramodi) February 15, 2015

The tweet was retweeted more than 20 000 times.

Image: ICC