Back in 2014, for Lord’s bicentenary celebrations, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) took on Rest of the World (ROW), to provide a clash of cricketing titans.
ROW XI was captained by Shane Warne while MCC XI was led by ‘Master Blaster’ Sachin Tendulkar, who hung his boot in that season itself.
Tendulkar came out to bat with Australian brute-hitter Aaron Finch, who smashed a brilliant 181* off 145 deliveries, to take his side home with a few overs to spare.
Now, Finch has opened up about his conversation with himself, before taking guard in the match at ‘Mecca of Cricket’.
“All I was thinking was don’t run him out. Just do not run Sachin out. I think it was one of the biggest, if not the biggest, crowds that Lord’s has ever had. It was a huge anniversary, Sachin’s captaining one team, Warnie’s [Warne] captaining the other,” Finch said on Sony Ten Pit Stop show.
The MCC XI’s star-studded lineup also consisted of Rahul Dravid, Brian Lara, Brett Lee, Daniel Vettori and many other stalwarts.
Meanwhile, Warne captained the likes of Virender Sehwag, Kevin Pietersen, Adam Gilchrist and Muttiah Muralitharan.
“That was a huge day. I think there was a huge Indian presence at the ground too, they were very loud. Obviously, the chants of ‘Sachin-Sachin’ going up all around Lord’s. And I just kept thinking, ‘If I run him out, I would never hear the end of this. I might not get out of Lord’s’” he added.
In Marvel Universe analogy, the auspicious match at Lords was an ‘Avenger: Endgame’ for cricket lovers, with cricketing superheroes everywhere on the field.
“Luckily, that was an unbelievable experience, batting with Sachin, [Rahul] Dravid, Brian Lara, Shivnarine Chanderpaul, it was unbelievable. Also on the other side was Gilly (Adam Gilchrist) and [Virender] Sehwag opening the batting, which is an absolute dream for me to watch them bat together. KP [Kevin Pietersen], Yuvi [Yuvraj Singh] got a big hundred as well. It was unbelievable, such a great day, something that I would never forget,” concluded Finch.
