Sachin’s Blaster v Warne’s Warriors: The predicted XI of the 2nd T20 at Houston
The second T20 of the All-star cricket league is all set take place in Houston, at Minute Maid Park- a baseball ground. The first T20 at Citi Field, New York has drawn a huge crowd from where Warne’s Warriors have the won the match by 6 wickets over Sachin’s Blasters.
Cricket legends Sachin Tendulkar and Shane Warne has planned this tournament to make cricket popular in America.
In the first T20 former Indian opener, Virender Sehwag has scored 55 off 22 balls. His first wicket partnership with Sachin Tendulkar have posted 85 runs on the board in 8 overs. But, after Sehwag departure Blaster’s flow of runs was in checked by Shane Warne and Andrew Symonds, both of them have taken three wickets each.
Sachin’s Blasters have posted 140 runs on the board. Warne’s Warriors batsmen Ricky Ponting and Kumar Sangakkara built an 80 run winning partnership. Ponting was unbeaten on 48 while Kumar Sangakkara has scored 41.
The highlight of the match was Jonty Rhodes’ reverse sweep and Shoaib Akhtar fast bowling. The former Pakistan speedstar was in a jovial mood. The fast and furious bowling has shown that Akhtar has still had something in him to offer to the world cricket. Akhtar was the most exciting player to watch in the first match.
The match was also played by other greats like Curtly Ambrose, Allan Donald, Brian Lara, VVS Laxman, Muttiah Muralitharan, Shaul Pollock, Courtney Walsh, Wasim Akram and many more.
It is expected on the day of Diwali- the festival of light- the night the match will draw more attraction from around the world. So, the Minute Maid Park stadium can see the attendance of more people than the first match at Citi Field.
In the first match the New York people, mostly work immigrants from India, Pakistan, Australia and Sri Lanka, were cheering Dada’s-Sourav Ganguly- name. Ganguly missed the first match and left India on November 9 for the remaining two matches of the former cricketer’s tournament. So, it is expected that Ganguly will open the innings with Sachin Tendulkar after nearly a decade. The former opening duo has 26 opening century partnership, which is yet to broken in ODI cricket. But, it will be an interesting sight of the match: Where will Virender Sehwag bat?
On the other hand, in the last match, captain Sachin Tendulkar’s team’s bowling department looked shaky. So to add strength to the bowling department Glenn McGrath will likely start. Graeme Swann can play in place of Curtly Ambrose. And Carl Hooper will be dropped because Sourav Ganguly will play the match.
Meanwhile, Warne Warriors can pick Micheal Vaughan and replace Saqlain Mushtaq with Courtney Walsh.
The predicted XI
Sachin’s Blasters: Sourav Ganguly, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Brian Lara, Mahela Jayawardene, Moin Khan, Muttiah Muralitharan, Shaul Pollock, Shoaib Akhtar, Graeme Swann, Lance Klusener
Warne’s Warriors: Jacques Kallis, Matthew Hayden, Michael Vaughan, Ricky Ponting, Kumar Sangakkara, Andrew Symonds, Wasim Akram, Daniel Vettori, Shane Warne, Saqlain Mushtaq, Allan Donald