Australia’s Aaron Finch seized his chance to shine among some of cricket’s greatest players with a commanding innings of 181 not out as MCC beat the Rest of the World in the Lord’s bicentenary match yesterday.
Set 294 to win a one-day match marking the 200th anniversary of the ‘home of cricket’, MCC finished on 296 for three with 25 balls to spare against an equally star-studded Rest of the World team.
Finch was involved in partnerships with three of the best batsmen cricket has known to cap a memorable Lord’s debut for the 27-year-old Victoria right-hander.
He put on 107 for the first wicket with Indian hero Sachin Tendulkar, cricket’s leading run-scorer in both Tests and one-day internationals.
Finch then added 67 and 122 with two contrasting West Indies left-handers in Brian Lara (23) and Shivnarine Chanderpaul (37 not out) respectively. Tendulkar (44) gave his fans in a capacity Lord’s crowd plenty to remember him by with the pick of his seven fours a straight drive off current Australia fast bowler Peter Siddle.
However, he fell to a familiar foe when, trying to cut Muttiah Muralitharan, he got a bottom edge and was bowled by the Sri Lanka off-spinner, Test cricket’s most successful bowler.
However, the crowd couldn’t see Shane Warne bowl as the Rest of the World captain suffered a broken right hand after being struck by an accidental beamer from fast bowler Brett Lee, his former Australia team-mate, while batting.
Earlier, Yuvraj Singh’s blistering 132 off 134 balls took the Rest of the World to 293 for seven after they had collapsed to 68 for five following four wickets for Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal.
Fresh from his 12-wicket haul in a county championship match for Worcestershire last week, Ajmal had Adam Gilchrist (29) stumped by Nottinghamshire and ex-England wicketkeeper Chris Read.
Ajmal then had Tamim Iqbal lbw, and Kevin Pietersen stumped before clean bowling fellow Pakistani Afridi for a duck. But with MCC skipper Tendulkar then taking Ajmal off, Yuvraj revived the innings against a bowling attack missing Umar Gul, who bowled two overs before suffering a knee injury.
