Cricket South Africa’s official Twitter handle, @OfficialCSA has been compromised following the end of day 4 of the third and final Test between the hosts and Pakistan in Johannesburg. After posting a build-up on day four where the game was evenly poised, One tweet was pinned which was a promotion of South Africa’s first bitcoin lottery. Another tweet promoted lunomoney, the official cryptocurrency page in South Africa. This raised the alarm that the official Cricket South Africa account was hacked. Even the International Cricket Council jumped into the fray, requesting people to not click on any of the links that were tweeted by Cricket South Africa.
“Please be aware that the @OfficialCSA Twitter account has been compromised. Our friends in South Africa are working hard to resolve the situation quickly. Please do not click on any links or engage with the account until such time as this is rectified,” the official ICC Twitter account said.
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@OfficialCSA is partnering with @lunomoney for the fist South African Bitcoin Lottery. Simply send 0,01 BTC to 13My18T92DCzGdrtiCgRuS32T6rFLjnG56 and your BTC Wallet Address will be entered into a BTC Lottery for 20BTC (That's Over R1Mil). Lottery closes at 15 Jan @ 10PM.
— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) January 13, 2019
🚨 Please be aware that the @OfficialCSA Twitter account has been compromised. Our friends in South Africa are working hard to resolve the situation quickly.
Please do not click on any links or engage with the account until such time as this is rectified. pic.twitter.com/wJmk2v4sWg
— ICC (@ICC) January 14, 2019
Bitcoin is a cryptocurrency, a form of electronic cash. It is a decentralized digital currency without a central bank or single administrator that can be sent from user-to-user on the peer-to-peer bitcoin network without the need for intermediaries. Transactions are verified by network nodes through cryptography and recorded in a public distributed ledger called a blockchain. Bitcoins are created as a reward for a process known as mining. They can be exchanged for other currencies, products, and services.
However, after a lot of help from the ICC, Cricket South Africa restored their official account and tweeted a statement which apologised to the fans for the hack. Even the ICC Tweeted about it simultaneously.
And... we're back!
Apologies to all our Twitter followers who were affected by the hack overnight. We are back in control & ready to bring you what promises to be an even more eventful Day 4 of Test cricket.
Thank you to our friends at the @ICC for your assistance this morning. pic.twitter.com/9z6KSBvB94— Cricket South Africa (@OfficialCSA) January 14, 2019
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Intriguing day
Heading into the fourth day, the Johannesburg Test is evenly poised. After securing a 77-run lead, South Africa extended their advantage with Hashim Amla scoring a brilliant 71 on a pitch that was still assisting the pace bowlers. However, it was Quinton de Kock’s brilliant 129 that gave South Africa the ultimate advantage. His fourth hundred and partnerships with the tail helped the Proteas reach 303 all out, setting Pakistan a target of 381. Faheem Ashraf and Shadab Khan were the pick of the bowlers with three wickets apiece.
In response, Pakistan started strongly with Imam-ul-Haq and Shan Masood stitching a solid 67-run stand but two wickets from Dale Steyn dented their progress. When Duane Olivier removed Azhar Ali for 15, it seemed the game was up for Pakistan but Asad Shafiq’s counter-attacking 48* ensured Pakistan needed a further 228 runs with two days to spare to avoid a 3-0 whitewash.