Sachin’s Blaster Vs Shane Warne’s Warior T20 Played at Citi Field, Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York City

Warne’s Warriors 143 /4 (RT Ponting 48*, KC Sangrakkara 41, Shoaib Akhter 2/ 26) beat Sachin’s Blaster 140/9 (V Shewag 55, SR Tendulkar 26, SR Warne 3/26, A Symonds 3/15) by 6 Wickets

Player of The Match: Shane Warne.

Can it be more heart touching than cricket’s matinee idols of yester years appears head to head in T20 theatre in New York USA . It makes cricket admirers nostalgic Wasim Akram, Alan Donald, Shane Warne running in to bowl Sachin ,Shewag ,Lara or Hayden , Kallis , Ponting , Shangrakara confronting Shoaib Akhter ,Curtley Ambrose and Muttiah Muralitharan.

New York living cricket communities had rare opportunity of watching these living legends of cricket in person yesterday. The electronic media viewers all over the world had the glimpse of these superstars when Sachin Blasters played Shane Warne Warrior at Citi Field, Flushing Meadows, and Queens, New York City.

Two Aussie Icon’s Shane Warne and Ricky Ponting let Warriors win it easy by 6 wickets. The match witnessed flashes of brilliance of some of leading performers of both team. But all the players were big draws in a country where cricket is yet not a preferred game. Cricket idols have launched a great job of shopping cricket in the wealthiest country of the world. Sachin and Shane definitely deserves a huge pat on the back for taking the great stepping stone for globalizing cricket which at one time was the vision of ICC.
 
It was not the intensity of the contest but the very presence of galaxy of cricket super stars of yester years made the dream come true for many. Could any imagine that teams like the following will ever appear in a contest in a country like USA?

Shane Warne Warrior: JHKallis, MLHayden, RT Ponting, KC Sangakara,A Symonds, JN Rhodes, Wasim Akram, DL Vittori,S Warne, CA Walsh and A Donald

Sachin’s Blaster: V Shewag, SR Tendulkar, VVS Laxman, BC Lara, DPMD Jayawardene, CL Hopper ,SM Pollock, Moeen Khan, CEM Ambrose, Muttiah Muralitharan and Shoaib Akhtar.

The series started in New York and the other two matches will be played in Los Angeles and Houston. In a country obsessed to baseball cricket so far is mainly popular among expatriate communities of the South Asian Subcontinent and Caribbean migrants. Players like Sachin, Warne and Lara are God to many.

Warne won the toss and put Sachin’s balster to bat. What could be a better site than Wasim and Donald opening the attack against two of the most destructive opening batsmen vintage Viru and Scintillating Sachin?Wasim did not get any wicket but bowled with his usual control and gave away only 16 runs in his allotted overs. 

Both Shewag and Sachin were more severe on Walsh and Donald. The partnership brought back memories of yester years racing to 85 by 8th forcing Shane to introduce himself. His magic immediately brought dividends. Sachin feel to a blinder of a catch by super athlete Kallis, VVS and Lara were consumed before they could cause any damage.85/0 soon turned into 4/97 .Vittori accounted for dangerous looking Shewag. Symonds chipped in with three quick wickets. 20 overs produced 140 for controlled bowling and athletic fielding of the warriors.



Warriors response had to overcome the blistering pace of Shuaib Akhter. Hayden was consumed early. Muralitharan from the deep made a spectacular throw sending Kallis back early. This brought in Ponting and Sangrakara to a quality 80 runs partnership. Neither Sangrakara nor Ponting their sharp reflexes and brilliant all round stroke play. Though Murali magic and Shoiab’s pace could account for Sangrakara and Symonds yet the target was at least 20 runs too less to create the contest. Ponting carried warriors across with 16 balls to spare. Ponting remained unbeaten on 48.
 
The way the two teams batted, bowled and even fielded spoke a lot of their class and quality. World must wait and watch the remaining two matches.
We hope Sachin and Shane would take their cricket to other countries like China. China and Korea have also shown keen interest for entering cricket seriously.

For this writer it was a nostalgic memory being fortunate to witness live most of these star cricketers at different stages of their brilliant career. Had also opportunity of interviewing few for my cricket column. Even this morning took a Bangladesh delegation for a guided tour to MCG sports museum where many records of most of those appearing today are preserved with pride .Shane Warne has a 3D presentation.

BDST: 1543 HRS, NOV 08, 2015
AKA