Former Indian opener Virender Sehwag once again showed the world why he is still counted among the most explosive batters in the cricket world.
In the opening match of the two-match Ice T20 Cricket challenge, Sehwag hit a half century for the Diamonds XI against the Shahid Afridi-led Royals XI in St Moritz. Sehwag scored 62 runs off 31 balls and during his innings, he hit five sixes and four fours.
Following his explosive batting in the resort town of St Moritz in temperatures below zero degrees, veteran Indian cricketer took it to micro-blogging site Twitter and wrote, “Hathiyar chhode hain ,chalana nahi bhoole hain 🙂 Great fun on the ice.”
Hathiyar chhode hain ,chalana nahi bhoole hain 🙂 Great fun on the ice. pic.twitter.com/V1bjFATGnI
— Virender Sehwag (@virendersehwag) February 8, 2018
Responding to his Tweet, former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly said, “@virendersehwag .. kya baat kaha Viru…”
@virendersehwag .. kya baat kaha Viru…
— Sourav Ganguly (@SGanguly99) February 8, 2018
With the help of Sehwag’s fifty and Australian cricketer Symonds’ 40, the Diamonds managed to take the score to 164 for 9 after the early dismissals of Tillakaratne Dilshan (8), Mahela Jayawardene (7) and Michael Hussey (1).
Earlier on Thursday after winning the toss, Virender Sehwag led Diamonds opted to bat first and scored 164 runs. Following the target, Pakistani cricketer Shahid Afridi-led Royals XI chased down the target with five overs remaining.
From Royals England batsman Owais Shah was the top scorer (74).
Here is the schedule for the second match:
Friday (February 9) [local time]
10:00 – Cricket Village and VIP Pavilion open
10:15 – Warm-up
10:45 – Presentation of the teams
11:00 – 1st inning (Team 2)
12:30 – Lunch Break
14:00 – 2nd inning (Team 1)
15:30 – Award ceremony and interviews
17:00 – End of St. Moritz Ice Cricket 2018
Squads:
Virender Sehwag’s Palace Diamonds XI: Virender Sehwag (India), Zaheer Khan (India), Mohammad Kaif (India), Ajit Agarkar (India), Mahela Jayawardene (Sri Lanka), Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka), Tillakaratne Dilshan (Sri Lanka), Michael Hussey (Australia), Andrew Symonds (Australia), Mithun Manhas (India), Ramesh Powar (India), Rohan Jain (Switzerland)
Shahid Afridi’s Royals XI: Shahid Afridi (Pakistan), Shoaib Akhtar (Pakistan), Abdul Razzak (Pakistan), Jacques Kallis (South Africa), Graeme Smith (South Africa), Daniel Vettori (New Zealand), Nathan McCullum (New Zealand), Grant Elliott (New Zealand), Monty Panesar (England), Owais Shah (England), Matt Prior (England), Aidan Andrews (Switzerland)