London:
Sachin Tendulkar made everyone at Lord’s nostalgic with some delectable strokes but it was young Aaron Finch, who stole the show with a magnificent 181 as MCC comfortably beat Rest of the World by seven wickets in the ‘Bicentenary Celebrations’ match on Saturday.
It was a ‘Union of Legends’ as the likes of Tendulkar, Brian Lara, Shane Warne once again put on their cricketing gears.
While Tendulkar, who made 41 and Lara, who chipped in with 23, showed their class and touch of genius in their short stay, it was Finch’s century that helped MCC overtake Rest of the World’s commanding 293 for seven with 27 balls to spare.
Finch’s 145 ball innings had 23 fours and six sixes as he overshadowed India discard Yuvraj Singh’s attractive 132 for the Rest of the World.
The only disappointment in the contest was public being robbed a chance to watch a Tendulkar vs Warne duel as the Aussie legend fractured his right hand trying to evade a Brett Lee beamer.
It was vintage Tendulkar as he square drove Peter Siddle and hit him for a straight drive. A cover drive off Paul Collingwood was sheer class.
He got a little too cheeky with his stroke-making and it proved to be his undoing as he was bowled by Sri Lanka’s Muttiah Muralitharan. His 41 off 44 balls had seven fours.
Finch then carried on and put on another 67 runs for the second wicket with Brian Lara. The latter didn’t look too comfortable in the middle and departed in the 30th over, after scoring 23 runs off 38 balls, including 3 fours.
