MCC vs Rest of the World - Current stars overshadow legends of the game

The world was witness to the class of West Indian legend Brian Lara and Sachin Tendulkar once again as they participated in an exhibition match to mark the bicentenary celebrations of Lord’s Cricket Ground in London on Saturday.

The match comprised of a few golden oldies and a handful of youngsters as a full house greeted the MCC XI, led by Tendulkar, who squared up against the Rest Of the World (ROW), being captained by Aussie spin sultan Shane Warne. Warne won the toss and put his team onto bat first under overcast conditions, despite the opponents having speedsters like Brett Lee and Shaun Tait in their ranks.

GOOD START:

His decision seemed to have paid off as the ROW openers Adam Gilchrist and Virender Sehwag notched up 59 runs in 10 overs. Gilchrist seemed particularly harsh on Tait, as he scored four boundaries in the sixth over, reminding one and all of the days when he would take the bowling to the cleaners.

AJMAL INTO THE ATTACK:

Once Pakistan's Saeed Ajmal came into the attack, the match turned in MCC's favour. With four wickets in 3 overs, he had them stuttering at 73-5 with the wickets of Pietersen, Gilchrist, Afridi and Tamim Iqbal in his bag, before Yuvraj Singh (132 in 134) combined with Paul Collingwood (40) rescued the team to post a competitive 293 on board in 50 overs.

LEE BREAKS HEARTS:

The match was termed as the Warne vs Sachin battle, with the two squaring off against each other after a long time. However, all hopes of seeing this encounter was dashed when Warne suffered from a suspect broken hand after being struck by an unintentional beamer from his former Aussie teammate Lee, who was quick to offer his apologies. Warne faced four more deliveries but did not take further participation in the match.

THE LEGENDS BAT ONE LAST TIME:

A standing ovation was accorded to the players as the MCC openers, Sachin and Aaron Finch, came out to bat. Sachin, batting after 6 months and 19 days, did not let the rain interruption distract him as he combined with Finch to give the team a solid start of 107 runs. He made 44 before being cleaned up by a peach of a delivery from Muttiah Muralidharan. Brian Lara's famed cover drives were in full flow before Paul Collingwood got him out for 23. He was on a hattrick after dismissing Rahul Dravid for a first ball duck, who couldn't stop his sheepish smile as he walked back to the pavilion.

The story was simple after that as a clinical Finch (181* in 145 balls) with Shivnarine Chanderpaul (37*) took the MCC home with seven wickets in hand and 4.1 overs to spare.

However, it won't be wrong to say that the stellar performances of the youngsters were overshadowed by the magnitude of the occasion. The day would rather be remembered as the day when the giants of the game came together once again, probably for the very last time.