Sachin Tendulkar, the biggest star amongst the glitterati in the Cricket All-Stars series, proved his class and mettle with a brilliant 56 runs from 27 balls, which included runs all around the park in the third and final T20 match of the series at Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles.
Tendulkar brought back memories of the 90s when he used to dominate bowlers with ridiculous ease. Tendulkar came up with a similar performance in Los Angeles as he hit six sixes and two fours to entertain the crowd.
It was a great day for Indian batsmen, as Sourav Ganguly and Virender Sehwag also made the fans dance in glee in one of the most famous baseball stadiums in the US. Ganguly scored 50 runs from 37 balls, which included three sixes and three fours while Sehwag gave a flying start to Sachin's Blasters as he scored a quickfire 27 off 15 balls.
Other batsmen such as Mahela Jayawardene and Carl Hooper also got into the act as they scored 41 and 33 runs respectively. With contributions from all the batsmen, who got a fair chance in the middle to bat, the Blasters put up a mammoth total of 219 runs.
The Warriors did not start off their innings well, as Curtly Ambrose picked up Michael Vaughan's in the first ball of the second innings. However, Andre Symonds, who walked in to the bat at No.3, used his muscles to take the attack to the opposition with an electrifying innings of 31 runs from19 balls. Matthew Hayden, who was also looking good, though, was unfortunate to be run out by VVS Laxman.
Even with Symonds and Hayden back in the dugout, Warriors had some class batsmen to follow, which included Ricky Ponting, Jacques Kallis and Kumar Sangakkara.
Sangakkara, who has been in brilliant touch in the series, once again played a nice hand with a 21 ball 42, which gave Warriors the lift required to chase down Blasters' total. English spinner, Graeme Swann picked up the vital wicket of Sangakkara when he was talking the game away from the Blasters.
Though Warriors lost Sangakkara's wicket, they were still gunning for a win with Ponting and Kallis at the batting crease. A late onsluaght from the duo helped the Warriors cross the finishing line as Kallis and Ponting played a fabulous innings of 49 and 43 runs respectively to help Shane Warne clinch the series 3-0.
Watch Sehwag's innings here.
Watch Tendulkar's half-century here.
Watch Ganguly's innings highlights here
Watch Symonds' blistering 31 runs here
Watch the Match Highlights here
