Sachin's Blasters v Warne's Warriors 1st T20, Preview: NY set to witness cracker of an event

Sachin’s Blasters v Warne’s Warriors 1st T20, Preview: NY set to witness cracker of an event: The random draw conducted on Times Square drew a few surprises, as Sachin Tendulkar teamed up with Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman among others.

While Sachin got his Indian connection back on track, Shane did well to pick up his old mates Ricky Ponting, Matthew Hayden and Andrew Symonds.

Sachin’s Blaster

With Curtly Ambrose, Shaun Pollock and Muttiah Muralitharan, the blasters looks well settled.

Sachin will no longer have to face Glenn Mcgrath, as the lanky fast bowler is set to lead the bowling pack of the blasters. Brian Lara’s addition will provide depth into the batting line-up, as the side looks top heavy from the word go.

Warne’s Warriors

For Shane, Courtney Walsh, Allan Donald and Wasim Akram will take up the storm when it comes to bowling.

The onus will be on Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Kumar Sangakkara to capitalize from the start, while Andrew Symonds presence will make the middle order look promising.

Captain’s words

Sachin is confident on a good show, as he said “The format is fast, it’s gripping, it’s got lot of energy and invariably the finishes are real close. Very rarely you get to see a one-sided game, which is what people like to see. Towards the end of most T20 games, every ball matters.”

Shane Warne too, sounded upbeat about the 3 match series.

“We’re going to go out there and play as hard as we possibly can, and we’re going to win. Simple as that,” said Warne after the draw. Warne also said the response to the tournament from the US public “had been overwhelming” and if all goes well, it could become an annual event.

He also said that the rules of cricket were too complicated for Americans to follow.”When you take two minutes to concentrate on it, it’s actually very simple,” he said. “We’re trying to hit the stumps and they’re trying to hit it out of the park. It’s not that hard.”

Fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar, who came into Sachin’s side after the coin flip, will be the key man for Blasters.

Citi Field in New York is the venue for the first T20 game. The capacity of the ground is 45000, and the atmosphere is expected to be electrifying. Houston and Los Angeles will host the next two encounters on November 11 and 14.

Drop-in pitches will be rolled on for the event, and the event has been sanctioned by ICC.

Match Details:

Stadium: Citi Field, New York.

Capacity: 45000

Timings: 11:30 IST

Live Telecast: Star Sports for Indian Viewers

Squads:

Sachin’s Blasters: Sachin Tendulkar (c), VVS Laxman, Sourav Ganguly, Virender Sehwag, Brian Lara, Mahela Jayawardene, Carl Hooper, Lance Klusener, Shaun Pollock, Moin Khan, Graeme Swann, Glenn McGrath, Muttiah Muralitharan, Shoaib Akhtar, Curtly Ambrose

Warne’s Warriors: Shane Warne (c), Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Michael Vaughan, Jacques Kallis, Kumar Sangakkara, Andrew Symonds, Jonty Rhodes, Saqlain Mushtaq, Wasim Akram, Daniel Vettori, Courtney Walsh, Allan Donald, Ajit Agarkar.

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