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A Twenty20 charity match or a Ten10 fund raiser..??

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I remember walking out on my colonie's ground to play little cricket matches at the earliest hours of every morning, and we all local cricketers wanted to play two 10 or 12 over matches rather than a single 20 or so over match..!!

Seems like the same days are coming to International cricket now as on 10^th of July, 2006, an International XI, called as World XI played a charity match against the Pakistan side. This was supposed to be a twenty20 cricket match, but due to rain and other commitments of some very high class people, it was made into a "Ten10 cricket match".

I mean 10 overs each side.

World XI batted first and made 123 for the loss of just 1 wicket. Brain Lara and Sachin Tendulkar opened the batting for International side and put on a partnership of 72 runs. The speciality of this match was that Waqar Younis was again bowled for Pakistan and then it was Mahendra Singh Dhoni, who slammed 35 off 13 balls. Dhoni hit three fours and three sixes, in his usual “unusual style”.

If you scroll down, I have typed the complete team of World XI, which featured cricketers from many other cricketing countries, but I wonder what Rahul Dravid doing in this match. It was a cricket match supposed to be players like Dhoni and Afridi, or may be for Tendulkars and Chris Carins, but Rahul Dravid in this team. That too as a captain..... doesn't make sense to me!!

I have an Idea. There were 12 International cricketers called for this match, how great captain Rahul Dravid would have proved himself to be, if he would have dropped himself and allowed the rest of 11 to try and make a mark..??

This was a charity match, but everyone knows that getting 10 wickets in 10 overs is not a very likely thing. And that gave the Pakistani Batsmen the licence to kill. Result – Pakistan got past 124 with the loss of 4 wickets in the last over of this Earthquake relief fund match.

There were lots of high profile people gathered at Oval in England to distract 20,000 spectators but in the end, it was cricket who got most of the attention. And that is why, Shahid Afridi of Pakistan was the real hero of this charity match. Afridi hit his first four balls for boundaries – three sixes and then a four, and then hit Scott Styris for a six before getting caught at short fine leg by Brain Lara. Afridi finished on 41 off 12 balls....

Do you still wonder how that man hit a one day century off just 37 balls??

This match raised a fund of over 250,000 pounds for the earthquake victims of Pakistan.

The International XI line up was made up of Rahul Dravid (captain) Mahendra Singh Dhoni, Sachin Tendulkar, Muttiah Muralitheran, Brian Lara, Chris Cairns, Makhaya Nntini, Andrew Hall, Scott Styris, Azhar Mahmood, Mohammed Akram and Saqlain Mushtaq.

I am sorry. I tried to find a scorecard of this charity match between World XI and Pakistan at the Oval, but seems like none of Website has bothered to make a scorecard for this match. I just hope I have crafted a good enough picture of what happened in this match, but if you want more.... try the Internet.

Its Only Cricket

A Twenty20 charity match or a Ten10 fund raiser..??

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