It isn’t often that Anil Kumble and Glenn McGrath — two of the legendary bowlers of all time — get a platform to talk about their batting prowess.
Indian spinner is participating in the Hong Kong Sixes tournament
HONG KONG: It isn’t often that Anil Kumble and Glenn McGrath — two of the legendary bowlers of all time — get a platform to talk about their batting prowess.
But the carnival atmosphere at the Cathay Pacific/Standard Chartered Hong Kong Cricket Sixes 2007, which got under way on Saturday, is expansive enough to provide for such unlikely — and wholly mirthsome — cricketing possibilities. Then again, given the format of the Hong Kong Sixes, it’s the bat that does much of the talking anyway.
Kumble, who recently scored his first Test hundred in England, and McGrath are on the first ever All Star team at the Sixes — along with the hugely popular Shane Warne, Brian Lara, Heath Streak and Craig McMillan. And on Saturday both of them got a chance to showcase a bit of flamboyant batting, rather more than the kind of sporting action for which they’re better known.
Kumble threw his bat about a bit in the All Star team’s face-off against rookies Bangladesh, and scored a strokeful 28. For his part, McGrath hit a towering six off the first ball he faced — and even attempted a nifty reverse sweep — in the game against South Africa.
Asked if it felt good to do one better than Warne (with his Test hundred), Kumble said he’d always fancied himself as a halfways — decent batsman, except that the Test hundred came about 18 years later than he’d have liked it.
McGrath, who confessed to having put on some 9 kg after his retirement, said he honestly didn’t miss playing Tests anymore, but it was always good to get back and have a bit of fun at a setting like the Hong Kong Sixes. And as for the attempted reverse sweep today, “the shot was always on,” he dead-panned.
Mixed day for India India had a mixed luck as they won one match and lost one on the opening day of the two-day Cathay Pacific Standard Chartered Hong Kong Sixes on Saturday.
The Robin Singh-led Indian squad, which also includes Ajay Jadeja and Nikhil Chopra, beat New Zealand by four runs and then crashed to a three-wicket loss to England in the final match of the day.
India play Australia in another league game and in case they win, they get a chance to play another game in an attempt to try and find a berth in the
semi-finals.
The most successful side of the day was All Stars team who had a bunch of retired stars, but all of them with enough ammunition to lay others flat. They did enough to win win all their three matches on the first day.
Except for India’s Anil Kumble, still a regular in Indian Test side, Shane Warne, Brian Lara, Glenn McGrath, Heath Streak and Craig McMillan have all retired from international cricket. Warne skippered the All Stars to wins over Australia, Bangladesh and South Africa.
Brief scores:
India beat New Zealand by 4 runs: India 88 for 0 (Sodhi 35, Jadeja 31); New Zealand 84 for 1 (Spearman 31)
England beat India by 3 wickets: India 63 for 3 (Bhatia 33); England 66 for 3 (Kabir Ali 18, Bresnan 16)
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