CARDIFF (Wales), Oct 6: The Rest of the World Xi won the second ‘Power Cricket’ match and the series at Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium after Wasim Akram kept his cool in a nail-biting final over.
Britain XI’s betting pair Robert Key and captain Nasser Hussain were set a target of 18 off the final over as they chased 141 to win.
Hussain smashed a six off Wasim, who bowled well to restrict Britain Xi to 138-8.
With the Rest of the World XI winning the first match on Friday, Sri Lankan batsman Aravinda de Silva gave them a solid base for victory in this second match with 61 runs as they reached 142-7 from their first 15 overs.
Rest of World XI, led by New Zealand skipper Stephan Fleming, picked up the 50,000 pounds (US$78,500) ‘winner takes all’ prize money.
Despite sparse crowds in the 74,000-seater stadium which is more used to staging rugby union internationals, the first ‘Power Cricket’ matches played in Britain received an enthusiastic response from the players.
“Everybody was excited and I enjoyed every bit of it,” said Wasim.
Power Cricket differs from conventional forms of the game in several ways.
A match consists of two 15-over innings per side and batsmen also score bonus runs when they hit the ball into different tiers of the stadium’s stands.
A hit straight into the lower tier was a six but balls landing directly in the middle section were classed as an eight with those going into the top deck were worth 10 runs.
Scoreboard
REST OF WORLD XI (1st Innings):
Saeed Anwar c Croft b Saggers 1
Azhar Mahmood run out 2
N.J. Astle c Fleming b Cork 11
P.A. de Silva c Brown b Fleming 61
Shahid Afridi c Key b Ealham 28
A. Flower c Saggers b Cork 16
D.P.M. Jayawardena c Cork b Ealham 0
Wasim Akram not out 14
S.P. Fleming not out 3
EXTRAS (LB-2, W-3, NB-1) 6
TOTAL (for seven wkts, 15 overs) 142
FALL OF WKTS: 1-2, 2-15, 3-21, 4-86, 5-112, 6-112, 7-129.
DID NOT BAT: Yuvraj Singh, Mushtaq Ahmed, A. Khan, J. Srinath, M. Muralitharan, C.A. Walsh.