Sunday, January 23, 2005
More Cricket for Tsunami Relief
After the overwhelming success of the World XI and Asia XI match, more charity matches are being played for the relief effort. Cricket moved from MCC to Christchurch this time, where most recently the first of the three one day match series between World XI ( not the same players as the last one though ) vs NewZealand concluded. NewZealand thumped the World XI to a resounding victory. After bowling out the World XI cheaply ( 158 in 39.3 overs ), NewZealand XI blasted 160-1 in only 16.1 overs. The magnificient 106 of 57 balls (9 sixes and 10 fours ) being the highlight of the match. Murali's magic hitting the low point after being bashed for 57 runs of only 3 overs. Even though this wasn't as star studded as the previous cricket match, still had many of cricket's greats playing for the Tsunami relief effort. The World XI was led by Shane Warne with Jayasuriya, Craig Spearman, Sangakkara, Graeme Hick, Rhodes, Klusener, Harvey, Streak, Vaas and Muralitharan. NewZealand was led by Steven Fleming. NewZealand played mostly their international players. Though this three one day series raises far less compared to the previous match, it is the coming together of the cricket players from all over the world which is commendable. Way to go!