World XI Rusty In First Up Loss

Stephen Fleming and the Black Caps have torn apart a rusty FICA World XI in the opening match of their three 50 limited-over games winning by nine wickets.

Shane Warne started the day by calling correctly at the toss and electing to bat first on what was an excellent batting wicket at Jade Stadium in Christchurch.

Sanath Jayasuriya and Craig Spearman opened up and looked in good touch for the initial overs but with the score at 16 Jayasuriya mistimed a pull shot and gave Chris Cairns a catch at fine leg. The World XI then went from bad to worse losing a further three wickets with the score at 20.

Jonty Rhodes then joined Graeme Hick and together they managed to pick the New Zealand bowlers off with relative ease but just as the partnership was starting to flourish Rhodes had a rush of blood to the head and was caught on the boundary by Nathan Astle off the bowling of Chris Cairns.

Jeff Wilson then got a delivery to lift on Graeme Hick who got an edge to to McCullum and at 112/6 the World XI were all but out of the game.

Lance Klusener and Heath Streak followed soon after but thanks to a late order partnership by Chaminda Vass and Shane Warne the FICA World XI managed to get over the 150 mark to finish up with 158.

The wickets were shared around with Vettori taking three, Tuffey and Mills two each, and Cairns and Wilson one a piece.

The highlight of the day was to follow with Stephen Fleming playing the most brutal innings of his career in taking the World XI bowlers to all parts of Jade Stadium. He finally departed for 106 off 57 balls with 10 fours and nine sixes when attempting to hit Shane Warne over mid-off. It was a simply amazing innings and Shane Warne went on to say post-match that it was the hardest hitting innings he’s ever seen.

Chris Cairns finished the game off hitting eight runs from the two deliveries he faced and the Black Caps rounded off victory in an incredible 16.1 overs.

Muttiah Muralitharan suffered the most of the World XI bowlers in going for 57 runs off only 3.1 overs while the wicket taker Warne went for 26 runs from 3 overs.

The teams now head to Wellington for the 2nd match on Monday.

Score Summary

FICA World XI 158 (G Hick 44, J Rhodes 36, S Warne 26, C Vass 20, D Vettori 3/33, D Tuffey 2/25, K Mills 2/30, J Wilson 1/27, C Cairns 1/38)

New Zealand 160/1 (S Fleming 106, N Astle 36*, S Warne 1/26)

New Zealand won by 9 wickets

Posted by James