Road Safety World Series has been an incredibly successful tournament so far. The idea of watching legends of the game take to the pitch once again has intrigued so many cricket fans and they are flocking to the stadiums in big numbers.
18th September brought two such games to the fans. Let’s look at the match report of the two matches.
Match 10: Sri Lanka Legends vs South Africa Legends
The 10th match of the RSWS brought the second-placed team, Sri Lanka, against South Africa with both having the chance to move towards the top.
After winning the toss, the SA Legends invited SL Legends to put runs on the board with the decision turning out to be a good one early on. Tillakaratne Dilshan, the SL captain departed early on at just one run. Dilshan Munaweera (26) and Upul Tharanga (36) took the game forwards. Later Jeevan Mendis played a solid inning of 43* to take their team to a score of 165/6.
Coming onto chase what was a decent total, the South Africa team also stuttered at the beginning as they lost their first wicket at just 18 runs. The other batter Morne van Wyk however took charge of the chase and created a massive 76 off of 56 balls. Number three batter Alviro Peterson held the innings with his 22 off 22 but that proved to be futile as the South African team could only get to 154/6 in 20 overs.
SL Legends won the game by 11 runs and have moved to the top of the table in Road Safety World Series.
Brief Score:
Sri Lanka Legends: 165/6
Jeevan Mendis: 43(27), Upul Tharanga: 36(27)
Nuwan Kulasekara: 4-33-2, Isuru Udana: 4-20-1
South Africa Legends: 154/6
Morne van Wyk: 76(56), Alviro Petersen: 22(22)
Garnett Kruger: 4-43-2, Johan Botha: 4-18-1
Match 11: Bangladesh Legends vs Australia Legends
Match 10 was a chance for the bottom teams Bangladesh and Australia to get their first taste of victory but it was the only one who could be on the right side of the result.
The Australia Legends won the toss and elected to field, as has been the norm these days. Bangladesh who have been poor in the tournament so far started off on a back foot here as well. The team lost two quick wickets to find themselves lingering at 8/2 in the second over. Elias Sunny (32*), Nazmus Sadat (20) and Alok Kapali (20) strung small partnerships to take the team to a decent 158/9. All eight bowlers apart from Brad Hodge took one wicket each in what was a complete team performance from the Australian bowling unit.
Coming onto chase the target Australia got an early setback as they lost Cameron White at just one run. Captain Shane Watson (35) and Callum Ferguson (24) built a good partnership for the second wicket and took the team past 70 runs. After these two departed, it was wicketkeeper batter Brad Haddin who took charge of the chase and came up with a solid half-century and took his team across the finishing line. Australia needed 21 runs in the last over and Haddin was able to achieve it with some sensational hitting.
Elian Sunny took four wickets but could not do much damage to the Australia team.
Brief Score:
Bangladesh Legends: 158/9
Elias Sunny: 32(29), Alok Kapali: 20(20)
Elias Sunny: 4-8-4, Abdur Razzak: 4-26-2
Australia Leegnds: 159/7
Brad Haddin: 58(37), Shane Watson: 35(21)
Dirk Nannes: 2-2-1, Nathan Reardon: 2-11-1
