*Tendulkar led MCC beat Rest of the World XI in a match to mark 200 years of Lord’s
They came in their thousands for one last chance to see yesterday’s heroes – Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne, Rahul Dravid and Adam Gilchrist, Brian Lara and Brett Lee. They got their wish too, even if Warne’s involvement was severely curtailed. But at the end of the day, it was three men still very much involved in active cricket that had the biggest parts to play as the MCC beat Rest of the World by seven wickets at Lord’s in a game to mark 200 years of cricket at St. John’s Wood.
Yuvraj Singh’s brilliant hundred prevented a one-sided rout after Saeed Ajmal had run rings around the Rest of the World batsmen, but the keynote performance came from the 27-year-old Aaron Finch, who showed little respect for reputations as he thrashed 181 not out from just 145 balls, complete with 23 fours and six sixes.
When two teams of XI play, it’s always a risk to try and identify contests within the main one. This match was headlined by Tendulkar and Warne. Tendulkar played his part, but the expected tussle against Warne never materialised. A nasty beamer from Lee broke his hand after he came out to bat in the final over of the Rest of the World’s innings, and it was Adam Gilchrist who led the side when the MCC came out to bat. Tendulkar, who played some of his finest innings against Warne, delivered a little cameo, before making way for the Finch force.
Had this been a proper competitive game, it’s doubtful whether it would have gone on too long after lunch. The Rest of the World had romped to 54 from just 43 deliveries, with both Gilchrist and Virender Sehwag rolling back the years against some listless and wayward bowling. Then, Lee sneaked one through Sehwag’s defence, and Saeed Ajmal took over. In the space of 15 balls, he had taken four wickets, leaving the Rest precariously placed at 68 for 5.
Gilchrist and Kevin Pietersen, who failed to read the doosra, were both stumped by Chris Read, while Tamim Iqbal was trapped in front by one bowled from round the wicket. Shahid Afridi, Ajmal’s international teammate, lasted all of two balls, before being bowled by a faster off-break.
If there had been a World Cup or some other bauble worth the name, you can rest assured Tendulkar would have kept Ajmal on. But with a near-capacity crowd inside Lord’s, no one was especially keen on an abbreviated game. And with the Ajmal threat removed from the fray, Yuvraj and Paul Collingwood cashed in against a line-up that had seen better days.
Shaun Tait, whose first over was taken for 17, trundled in and was nothing like the bowler who had such shock value when Australia won the World Cup in the Caribbean in 2007. Umar Gul went off injured after just two overs, and Daniel Vettori was tidy at best. Yuvraj, currently not part of India’s 50-over plans, gradually found his leg-side range, while Collingwood sensibly turned the strike over.
The two added 131 in 25 overs to completely transform the game. Collingwood’ s 64-ball 40 ended when Rahul Dravid took a superb low catch low to his right at a wide lone slip, but that only served to free Yuvraj’s arms even more.
Tendulkar came on to bowl the 41st over to raucous cheers, but his good friend subjected him to some harsh treatment in the final stages, as 94 came from the final 13 overs of the innings. Tendulkar did have the small consolation of dismissing Yuvraj, caught at long-on, but by then he had rattled off 132 from just 134 balls, with eight fours and six sixes.
The MCC side had Tendulkar, Brian Lara and Dravid batting in the top four, but their pursuit of 294 was all about Finch, whose 156 last summer against England in a Twenty20 game alerted the world to his big-hitting prowess. Without Warne’s admittedly reduced wiles to combat, Finch was rarely troubled. Tendulkar also produced some vintage strokes, including a pristine straight drive and a punchy shot through cover, as the new-ball attack of Peter Siddle and Tino Best was seen off without great concern.
It wasn’t until Muttiah Muralitharan, now 42, came on that the Rest got any respite. Tendulkar was bowled after making 44, trying a cute deflection, and those that stood to applaud him all the way back to the pavilion didn’t sit back down until Lara, who came in at No.3, had made his way to the middle. More than 20 years after he put Sir Garfield Sobers in the shade, Lara produced a couple of wristy flourishes, but it was Finch that scattered the field with immensely powerful strokes on either side of the wicket.
Whether it was the drive, the cut or the pull, Finch played them with increasingly fluency. There were only 170 on the board by the time he got to his century, and the pace didn’t let up either. Collingwood gave the Rest brief hope with two wickets in two balls – Lara caught behind, and Dravid bowled through the gate – but after that, it was all one-way traffic, with Finch’s bat akin to the Hammer of Thor as the Rest were battered into submission.
The game was won with 25 balls to spare. The crowd may have come to salute the legends, but this was a day for younger, hungrier men.
REST OF THE WORLD XI
AC Gilchrist† st †Read b Saeed Ajmal 29
V Sehwag b Lee 22
Tamim Iqbal lbw b Saeed Ajmal 1
KP Pietersen st †Read b Saeed Ajmal 10
Yuvraj Singh c sub (MT Renshaw) b Tendulkar 132
Shahid Afridi b Saeed Ajmal 0
PD Collingwood c Dravid b Lee 40
PM Siddle not out 33
SK Warne* not out 3
Extras (b 4, lb 2, w 16, nb 1) 23
Total (7 wickets; 50 overs; 201 mins) 293
Did not batTL Best, M Muralitharan
Fall of wickets 1-54 (Sehwag, 6.5 ov), 2-54 (Gilchrist, 7.4 ov), 3-59 (Tamim Iqbal, 9.5 ov), 4-68 (Pietersen, 11.4 ov), 5-68 (Shahid Afridi, 11.6 ov), 6-199 (Collingwood, 36.6 ov), 7-283 (Yuvraj Singh, 48.5 ov)
Bowling
B Lee 10-0-55-2, Umar Gul 2-0-16-0, SW Tait 10-0-58-0, Saeed Ajmal 10-0-45-4, DL Vettor 10-0-47-0, AJ Finch 4-0-33-0, SR Tendulkar 4-0-33-1
MARYLEBONE CRICKET CLUB
A Finch not out 181
SR Tendulkar* b Muralitharan 44
BC Lara c †Gilchrist b Collingwood 23
R Dravid b Collingwood 0
S Chanderpaul not out 37
Extras (lb 4, w 6, nb 1) 11
Total (3 wickets; 45.5 overs; 183 mins) 296
Did not batB Lee, CMW Read†, Saeed Ajmal, SW Tait, Umar Gul, DL Vettori
Fall of wickets 1-107 (Tendulkar, 16.6 ov), 2-174 (Lara, 29.4 ov), 3-174 (Dravid, 29.5 ov)
Bowling
PM Siddle 8-2-45-0, TL Best 8-0-63-0, PD Collingwood 7-0-25-2, M Muralitharan 10-0-55-1, Shahid Afridi 5-1-29-0, Yuvraj Singh 5.5-0-46-0, KP Pietersen 2-0-29-0
MATCH DETAILS
Toss – Rest of the World XI, who chose to bat
Series – Marylebone Cricket Club won the 2014 MCC Bicentenary Celebration Match
Umpires – IJ Gould and RA Kettleborough
TV umpire – MA Gough