India Maharaja beats World Giants 2022
Legends Cricket League 2022
The India Maharajas Vs, World Giants match, was a part of the Legends Cricket League tournament that first began in early 2022, and its first season was played in the Oman Cricket Academy Ground in Muscat. The league began with three teams, i.e. The Indian Maharajas, World Giants and Asia Lions. The three teams featured retired legends of world cricket, and a round-robin tournament was played as a charity tournament. Big-time legends such as Harbhajan Singh, Muttiah Muralitharan, Daniel Vettori, Jacques Kallis, etc., graced the grounds and displayed their sharp skills in entertaining the crowd. The motive behind this tournament was to initiate women’s empowerment in cricket. The match had all women officials, from the referee to the umpires.
The league comes to India.
After a successful first season, the league’s second edition began on the 16th of September, 2022. This year it becomes bigger as the match venue shifts to India and another team is added. The season began with the first match between India Maharajas and World Giants, which shall be played at the iconic Eden Gardens in Kolkata. This year’s exhibition match and the league shall honour the AzadikaAmritMahotsav commemorating the 75 years of Indian Independence. India Maharajas squad had legends like Harbhajan Singh (c), Mohammed Kaif, Yusuf Pathan, Subramaniam Badrinath, Irfan Pathan, Parthiv Patel (wk), Stuart Binny, S Sreesanth, Virender Sehwag, Naman Ojha (wk), Ashok Dinda, Pragyan Ojha, Ajay Jadeja, RP Singh, Joginder Sharma, Reetinder Singh Sodhi. And the World Giants squad was composed of legends of world cricket, Jacques Kallis (c), Lendl Simmons, Herschelle Gibbs, Sanath Jayasuriya, Matt Prior (wk), Nathan McCullum, Jonty Rhodes, Muttiah Muralitharan, Dale Steyn, Hamilton Masakadza, MashrafeMortaza, Asghar Afghan, Mitchell Johnson, Brett Lee, Kevin O’Brien, DeneshRamdin (wk).
The Exhibition Matchday
The matchday unfolded with World Giants captain, the legendary all-rounder Jacques Kallis winning the toss and electing to bat on the high-scoring pitch of Eden Gardens, where he has played a luscious career being a part of the Kolkata Knight Riders. Kevin O Brien and Hamilton Masakadza opened the batting and put up a solid opening partnership of 50 odd runs when Hamilton hit the ball into the hands of a fielder at covers. The innings went on with wickets falling at regular intervals courtesy of Pankaj Singh, Harbhajan Singh and Joginder Sharma. But Kevin held on to a side and scored a brilliant fifty to stabilise the World Giants innings. Down the order appeared another big hitter Dinesh Ramdin who, with his 42 of 29 balls, took the World Giants to a defendable total of 170. The outstanding performer for India was definitely Pankaj Singh, who picked a fifer in this exhibition match and thrashed the World Giants single-handedly. Indian openers Parthiv Patel and Virender Sehwag, two of the best openers, came on to bat. They could not stick around and be picked early by Tim Bresnan and Fidel Edwards. The innings saw a slow start, and India was struggling when TanmaySrivastav coming in at 3, put up a show on the Eden Gardens, hit a fantastic 54 from 39 balls, and stabilised India Maharajas. Later on, brothers Irfan and Yusuf Pathan completely demolished the World Giant bowlers as Yusuf Hit 50 of 35 balls, and Irfan closed the deal by hitting 20 of just 9 balls studded with 3 massive sixes and took India Maharajas to the victory stand.
