The Cricket all star series was a grueling contest between the teams of legendary players SACHIN TENDULKAR and Shane Warne which the latter won by 3-0. The Squad consisted of the super star of yesteryears who retired from the game. It was in fact an exhibition match series played in New York, Houston and Los Angeles. When the series was planned the matches were to be played at Wrigley field in Chicago, Yankee stadium in New York and dodgers stadium in Los Angeles. Later on the venues were changed to New York METS HOME Ball Park and Houston’s Astros home ball park. The first match was a day affair while the second and third one was played under the lights. Spectators had their money worth as they saw their favorite stars in action. Drop in pitches were prepared by the curator from New Zealand in the city of Minneapolis.
The two teams participating in the high octane actions were SACHIN blasters led by the highest run scorer in test and One day cricket while Warne’s warriors were marshaled by the indomitable leg spinner Shane Warne from Australia. Players such as Glen Mcgrath and Shaoib Akhtar were bowling spearhead of blasters team and bamboozled the opposition batsmen. On the other hand Allan Donald, Waseem Akram and Courtney WALSH were the key weapons in the bowling arsenal of the WARNE’s team.
All the matches were closely contested however Warners warriors were shade better than the blasters due to prolific knock from Ricky Ponting and stupendous bowling spells from Andrew Symonds who was a super star all rounder in the past decade. Spinners such as Muttiah Muralitharan and Saqlain Mushtaq were in action in the series with sterling performance. One of the key performers was Kumar Sangkarra, the Sri lankan wicket keeper who hit a quick fire 70 runs off 30 balls in the second match. The knock proved crucial in the win of the Warne Warriors. Andrew Symonds again played a crucial role with the ball in the second match by scalping 4 wickets for 70 runs.
SANGKARRA was the
top run getter of the series with a total of 153 runs from 3 innings. His average was 51 while the strike was an impressive 191.25. The wicket keeper proved that he has enough power in him to excel in tough international cricket even after retirement. Sachin tendulkar, the master blaster scored 115 runs in 3 innings at a decent average of 38.33. The strike rate of the little master was more than 150 which is not bad for a retired legend.
ANDREW SYMONDS kept up his reputation by
cleaning up 8 players in the series at an impressive average of 14.75 runs. To be candid, his performance was amazing considering a vastly improved economy rate of 13.11.
MARAIS ERASMUS from South Africa along with SIMON TAUFEL and STEVE DAVIS from Australia were designated the umpire of the series. SEHWAG, the recently retired Indian opener fired initial salvo by hitting huge sixes out of the park reminding people that the cricket in him is not yet finished.