Sachin's Blasters vs Warne's Warriors: Shane expects Tendulkar's team to come back hard in 2nd T20 All-Star match

The much anticipated 1^st T20 match of the All-Stars series was a huge success with some retired cricketers showing that they still have plenty of gas left in their tank to entertain the crowd in the US.

Warne's Warriors, led by Shane Warne, defeated a team captained by Sachin Tendulkar -- Sachin's Blasters -- by six wickets in New York. The Blasters comprises players such as Brian Lara, Curtly Ambrose and Mahela Jayawardene who are champion cricketers and hate losing. Hence, these players will be raring to go when these two teams square off in the second T20 at Minute Maid Park in Houston on 11 November.

Warne is aware of the fact that Sachin and his men are going to make life tough in Houston as he expects the Blasters to come hard at the Warriors.

"We wanted to be competitive. There was some skillful batting and bowling and fielding out there. But we know they will come back hard in Houston. A lot of the guys have trained hard, they are proud people, they don't want to be embarrassed and they were not today," Warne said.

Though there were smiles and light moments during the game, both the teams were playing some serious cricket with the objective of winning. Even before the All-Stars series started, Tendulkar had made it clear that the players are not going to take the three-match series lightly.

Sehwag was one of the standout performers for the Blasters, while the Warriors emerged victorious with good hands from Ricky Ponting and Kumar Sangakkara. Shane Warne and Andrew Symonds took three wickets each for the Warriors. Sourav Ganguly, who missed the first T20 for the Blasters, is expected to feature in the second T20.

Some of the players including Daniel Vettori, Ponting looked good enough to play for their respective sides in the international cricket at present as well. However, Sachin believes these retired cricketers have picked up the bat to globalise the game.

"The reason to again start to play after retirement is to globalise cricket and there are exciting times ahead as well," said Tendulkar.

Cricket fans in Houston must be eagerly waiting for the arrival of these star cricketers, who were well supported by the fans in New York during the first T20.