The first Ashes test in Brisbane has ended a draw, with England staging a stouthearted second innings fightback. Alastair Cook also became only the fourth Englishman in history to score an Ashes double-hundred in Australia. More importantly cricket fans across England and Australia have turned to Twitter to share their thoughts on the Test series and have found @theashes on the social networking service. The only issue is that they didn’t know that @theashes is the profile of a woman from Westfield, Massachusetts. She writes mostly about knitting and her toddler, but it hasn’t stopped hundreds of people from sending her messages and asking for score updates.

At first she was amused by the sudden attention, but it quickly lost its novelty. “I am not a cricket match. Stop mentioning me and check profiles before you send messages. It’s really annoying,” she tweeted.

But her irritation only prompted others to re-tweet her comments to hundreds more. Oh to be a heroic re-tweeter!

Cricket tweeters, however, are urging the woman to accept her fate as a new icon.

“It seems to have caught on! Your chance to influence thousands of people,” one tweeted.

“You’re very popular, m’dear,” wrote another.

The teasing spread fast with Twitter users encouraging others to follow her to get the latest Ashes updates. She now has over 5000 followers – up from a few hundred people before the Ashes series began. And the young lady has responded immediately, venting her anger through her tweets. “I AM NOT A FREAKING CRICKET MATCH!!!”

Alright then all you techno-savvy 2oceans Vibers: how would you respond? Create a new profile and risk all those followers you’ve gathered? Or would you see it as the perfect opportunity to wind some people up? It appears that Twitter’s cricket enthusiasts enjoy inciting tweeple unrest.

At least the series sponsors Vodafone have caught onto the trend and have offered cricket’s latest craze a few Monday morning perks. Nice.

[Sydney Morning Herald] [Herald Sun] [M&G]

Main image via Technorati.