On Monday night I attended a 20-20 Cricket match in aid of the those affected by the Asian Tsunami earlier this year. An International XI lined up against an Asian XI at the Oval in London. Gary had purchased tickets and a bunch of us from work made our way to the Oval to watch the match.
The Asia XI batted first
The sun was shining and the crowd was making plenty of noise as the game kicked off. There was plenty of big hitting though sixes were few and far between. Each boundary scored was rewarded with more money being put to the fund raised on the day so their was plenty of incentive to go for the more expansive strokes.
It’s not often you’ll see these names together on the pitch
The kiwi contingent of players, Stephen Fleming, Chris Cairns and late call-up Scott Styris were in the action, Fleming taking a couple of catches while Cairns and Styris had their over bowling. The batting was another matter, both Fleming and Cairns out for 1 or none (though at least Cairns was going for a big slog, Fleming looked like he didn’t quite know what to do during his short time at the crease). Scott Styris had a good knock once he was in though his repeated boundaries stopped Greg Blewett from scoring his century.
Brian Lara being bowled
All in all it was a good evening with some exciting cricket being played, just a pity that the International XI made the runs easily removing any sense of suspense. Still, it was good to see all the players having fun and coming together for a good cause. There is a BBC report on the match here.
