LONDON: Yuvraj Singh’s century rescued the Rest of the World XI from a dramatic collapse as they recovered to 293-7 against MCC in the Lord’s bicentenary match on Saturday.

In a fixture celebrating the 200th anniversary of the current Lord’s ground, Pakistan off-spinner Saeed Ajmal took four wickets for five runs in 15 balls as the World XI collapsed to 68-5 in 12 overs.

But Indian left-hander Yuvraj’s blistering 132 off 134 balls, including six sixes and eight fours, turned the tide.

Together with former England all-rounder Paul Collingwood (40), he repaired the early damage with a sixth-wicket stand of 131.

World XI captain Shane Warne, though, was ruled out of the remainder of the match when he suffered a suspected broken hand after being struck by an accidental beamer bowled by fast bowler Brett Lee, his former Australia team-mate, while batting towards the end of the innings.

Dynamic openers Adam Gilchrist and Virender Sehwag got the World XI off to a brisk start with a stand of 54 inside seven overs after Warne won the toss.

Lee made the initial breakthrough by clean-bowling Sehwag for 22.

Saeed — one of the active as opposed to retired first-class cricketers taking part in this match — then took over on his way to final figures of 4-45 in 10 overs.

Saeed had Gilchrist (29) smartly stumped by ex-England wicketkeeper Chris Read.

Tamim Iqbal was then lbw before Kevin Pietersen misread Saeed’s doosra and was stumped for 10.

Shahid Afridi, lingering on the back foot, was then bowled by his fellow-Pakistani’s quicker off-spin delivery.

It was a fine display but, with many spectators having paid to watch the batsmen on both sides, MCC captain Sachin Tendulkar removed Saeed from the attack after a remarkable spell of 4-9 in four overs.

Yuvraj revived the innings by sweeping sixes off both part-time spinner Aaron Finch and New Zealand veteran left-armer Daniel Vettori, with MCC’s attack hampered by Pakistani seamer Umar Gul going off injured after bowling just two overs.

Saeed, however, could have had a wicket with his first ball back when Collingwood, on 29, top-edged a slog-sweep only for substitute fielder Jordan Price to drop the seemingly simple catch.

Next ball Yuvraj, on 68, cut at Saeed but Read could not hold the tough chance.

However, Collingwood was eventually out when he cut hard at Lee, and Dravid made light of a difficult chance in the gully.

Tendulkar — the one player above all others they had come to see — brought himself on to bowl his leg-spinners.

But soon afterwards Yuvraj pulled a Tendulkar long-hop for four to reach his hundred.

Yuvraj then stylishly lofted Lee for a huge six over midwicket before his innings ended when he holed out off Tendulkar.

Scoreboard

REST OF WORLD XI:

A.C. Gilchrist st Read b Saeed 29

V. Sehwag b Lee 22

Tamim Iqbal lbw b Saeed 1

K.P. Pietersen st Read b Saeed 10

Yuvraj Singh c sub b Tendulkar 132

Shahid Afridi b Saeed 0

P.D. Collingwood c Dravid b Lee 40

P.M. Siddle not out 33

S.K. Warne not out 3

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-2, W-16, NB-1) 23

TOTAL (for seven wkts, 50 overs) 293

FALL OF WKTS: 1-54, 2-54, 3-59, 4-68, 5-68, 6-199, 7-283.

DID NOT BAT: T.L. Best, M. Muralitharan.

BOWLING: Lee 10-0-55-2 (1nb, 3w); Umar Gul 2-0-16-0; Tait 10-0-58-0 (5w); Saeed Ajmal 10-0-45-4 (1w); Vettori 10-0-47-0 (2w); Finch 4-0-33-0 (1w); Tendulkar 4-0-33-1.

MCC: S.R. Tendulkar, A.J. Finch, B.C. Lara, S. Chanderpaul, R. Dravid, C.M.W. Read, D.L. Vettori, B. Lee, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, S.W. Tait.

UMPIRES: I.J. Gould and R.A. Kettleborough.

TV UMPIRE: M.A. Gough.

Published in Dawn, July 6th , 2014