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Filed under Afro-asia cup

You'll rarely hear a big 'COME ON' from bowlers of either team. You'll also not notice any team hurdles or off-sad faces at the end of the match. Its like Afro-Asia cup 2007 is forced on them, & International cricketers are just going through the obligations they've with their national boards..

African team is filled with South Africa players, so others from Zimbabwe n Kenya do the filling job. Asian team is more of a complex mixture, with India & Srilankans faces forming the majority. Two Pakistani Mohammad's (Yousuf & Asif) seems to be enjoying their stay in India whereas Bangladeshi Mashrafe Mortaza & Mohammad Rafique are only two players fielding their heart out..

Question is : why this cricket series is organised in first place, when no one wants to play it, or even fans aren't willing to watch full 7 hours of it on Television (forget about jam-packing Chepuk stadium in Chennai).

Answer is : of course the money envolved, although there's no sponsor for this 2nd Asia-Africa cricket series. Asian cricket board with Africa counterparts believe more cricket is proportional to more Dollars, which in fact is hardly the case. I'm sure Itsonlycricket readers are hardly interested in knowing when n where next Afro-asia cricket series will be played. Answer is - in Kenya sometime in 2008.

Today, 2nd ODI was played with Asia mounting 337 off their first 50 overs. Virendra Sehwag threw his wicket away once against after 38 ball 52, whereas Sourav Ganguly again played calm innings of 88 from 112 balls. Indian wicket keeper MS Dhoni was sent at number 4, hit 2 four n 2 biggest ones to complile 33 runs.Asia Captain Mahela Jayawardene, Yousuf & Yuvraj played fast innings towards the end - to notch up 337 as I mentioned earlier.

Chennai stadium was no more than 20% filled, but African reply started impressively.Vusi Sibanda from Zimbabwe overshadowed AB de Villers, Captain Justin Kemp & Boeta Dippenaar to an extent - to make strokeful 35 after opening the innings. Mark Boucher with Shaun Pollock did the repaire job, but again Africa XI crumbled under the pressure. the scorecard reads a win for Asia by 31 runs, but match was over a little before that.

Asia XI vs Africa XI Cup, 2st ODI at Chennai
Asia XI 337 for 7 from 50 overs	Africa XI 306 all out in 49.5 overs
Sehwag 52, Jayasuriya 11, Ganguly 88	AB de Villier 13, Sibanda 35 with 4 4s
MS Dhoni 33, Jayawardene 45 off 40	Dippenaar 67 off 72, Kemp 0 from 2 balls
Yousuf 51 from 44, Yuvraj Singh 30 off 13	Boucher 73, Pollock 35, A Morkel 13
Mohammad Rafique 1 & Zaheer 1*	Botha 13, Odoyo 12 & M Morkel 25 (21)
Morkel 2 for 48 & Chigumbura 2 for 84	Fernanado 4 for 36 & Rafique 2 for 62
Asia XI won the match by 31 runs, lead 3 ODI series 2-0

Notes :

[:] In 38th over when Virendra Sehwag was fielding at the long-on boundary. He (like most cricketers fielding at the ropes) was drinking water as cricket at pitch carried on. Unluckily, ball was hit staright to Sehwag, who ran to field it before misfielding it. His mouth was packed with water, which Viru swalloed later on.
[:] Its the 2nd afro-asia cup. first one was played in South Africa 2 years ago, which again was a 3 ODI series. But no one won that series, ending tied at 1-1. This time though - Asia XI seems to have the edge as they already have taken invincible lead of 2 to nil.

All about Asia vs Africa (afro-asia)cup 2007

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Experience drives Asia to victory over innocent Africa

Africa slipped n slipped, but again made a match of it.

Asia XI cruise to second victory

Asia send Africa back home empty handed