Captain cool Mahendra Singh Dhoni finishes on high notes in an Inaugural T20 match of ‘Cricket for Heroes’ fundraiser match, played at Kia Oval, London yesterday. The match raised $6,50,000 as charity amount for the British Armed Forces. Along with MS Dhoni, other cricketing stars like Virender Sehwag, Brendon McCullum, Herschelle Gibbs played.
The match was being played in order to raise money and support the wounded, injured and sick servicemen of British Armed Forces. Players participating in the match were honored with a gala dinner, hosted by British Prime Minister David Cameron a day before the match.
The fundraiser played on Thursday (17th September) was witnessed by nearly 20000 audiences, present at Kia Ovals.
Formal start of match with a toss won by Rest of the World XI (ROW) and opted to bat first; team lead by Brendon McCullum scored 158 runs after losing 6 wickets in 20 over. The inning itself raised $8666 after a generous supporter sponsored 1000 pounds per boundary (nearly $2166).
Help for the Heroes XI (HFH) batting second successfully chased the desired total in 19.3 over, which helped them take a fair 4 wickets win over ROW. India’s star opening batsmen Virender Sehwag and current director of England Cricket Andrew Strauss opened for HFH andput on board highest partnership of 63 runs to make way to win the charity match.
The legendary MS Dhoni once again finished the match in style hitting a boundary on third ball of the final over. He was awarded Man of the Match for his brilliant knock of 38 runs in just 16 balls.
Both the sides comprised legendary players and coaches. The HFH side was coached by Sir Ian Botham and ROW had Gary Kirsten, along with other big names were also there as managers on their sides, David Grover and Michael Holding for HFH and Sunil Gavaskar for ROW.
The Teams line-up was:
Help for Heroes XI: Andrew Strauss (c), Herschelle Gibbs, Virender Sehwag, MS Dhoni, Damien Martyn, Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Parker, Corporal Jake Wray, Shahid Afridi, Graeme Swann, Simon Jones, Matthew Hoggard, Darren Gough.
Rest of the World XI: Brendon McCullum (c), Matthew Hayden, Graeme Smith, Mahela Jayawardene, Major Storm Green, Brian Lara, Abdul Razzaq, Scott Styris, Dan Vettori, Tim Southee, Shapoor Zadran.
