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An exciting match was played out on Thursday night between the ‘Help for Heroes XI’ and ‘Rest of the World XI’, in the first ever cricket fundraiser for ‘Help for Heroes’, a charity for British soldiers who have been wounded in the line of duty. Virender Sehwag and MS Dhoni were star performers from the winning side, the HFH XI.
The two teams played some flamboyant cricket in front of a packed Oval crowd, which had 20,000 people who had come to see the plethora of retired and current stars in action.
Batting first, Matthew Hayden and Graeme Smith took strike for ROW XI, as Darren Gough steamed in to bowl. Gough sent Smith’s middle stump cartwheeling in the 4th over, for Brian Lara to come out. Hayden (36) made merry in the first 10 overs, before Graeme Swann and MS Dhoni combined sharply to get him stumped out – the score reading 76/2 in 11 overs.
Mahela Jayawardene, who fell just short of his half-century, and Brendon McCullum, raised a blistering charge in the second half of the innings, but were both dismissed in the 18th over – Dhoni’s catch getting rid of McCullum.
Some tight death overs bowling by Darren Gough meant that ROW XI would finish their innings at 158/6 in 20 overs.
The Sehwag charge and the Dhoni finish
In reply, Virender Sehwag (30) and Andrew Strauss (26) came out to open for HFH, smashing boundaries all around the park, making the crowd go berserk and reaching 63/0 in the first 6 overs. Strike bowlers Tim Southee and Shapoor Zadran looked out of ideas.
However, as both wickets fell in quick succession, the scoring rate dipped. Damien Martyn departed soon after, forcing MS Dhoni to come out and join Herschelle Gibbs in the middle with the score at 77/3 in 10 overs – the crowd chanting ‘Dhoni Dhoni’ as he walked out.
Dhoni was required to play the leading role in the chase that remained, as Gibbs was dismissed soon too, with 82 required off the last 10 overs. The Indian ODI captain played some exquisite shots, also taking care to move the score along with excellent running between the wickets with both his partners – Major Storm Green of the British Army and then Middlesex’s Dawid Malan.
In true style, Dhoni finished off the match with a boundary in the last over, HFH winning the match by 5 wickets and 3 balls remaining. Dhoni was named Man of the Match for his 38* off 22 balls and his good work behind the stumps.
Almost £300,000 were raised in funds in the course of the match, and an exciting T20 match was had.
Some moments from the match:
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