Sachin Tendulkar was captain of the MCC XI. (Source: File)
It was the 200th anniversary of the opening of the Lord’s cricket ground in London. Arguably the most iconic stadium in the game of cricket, the occasion was marked by some of the greats of the game strutting their stuff at the ground. Some of them had hung up their boots while others were still active cricketers.
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Sachin was captain of the MCC XI representing the Marylebone Cricket Club while Shane Warne led the Rest of the World XI. ROW batted first and posted a total of 293 thanks to Yuvraj Singh’s 139. Sachin opened the batting for the MCC XI alongwith Aaron Finch. He had been retired from Test cricket for over a year by then and Tino Best was the man who bowled the first ball to Tendulkar.
Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne couldn’t renew their classic rivalry due to the latter’s absence during MCC XI’s innings. (Source: File)
It took him some time to get going but he finally freed his arms with a lovely square drive that raced to the boundary. It was then a case of Tendulkar going after the bowlers and Finch standing by. One might even say he chose to take it all in as he watched the Master Blaster in full flow from the best seat in the middle. Shane Warne declared himself unavailable to bowl for ROW XI and that robbed the crowd off the classic contest between him and Tendulkar.
Finch and Tendulkar managed to put up an opening partnership of 107 runs. Tendulkar himself looked set to score a fifty on his first outing for over a year but it was not to be. It was the last ball of the 16th over of the MCC innings and it was bowled by Sri Lankan great Muttiah Muralitharan. He went to cut a delivery that was tossed up a bit too close to the off stump by Murali and the ball took an inside edge before dislodging the bails. Tendulkar was out for 44. On his way to the total he hit seven boundaries. Aaron Finch would then bat through the innings and take MCC to victory.
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