Legendary cricketers led by Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi and India’s Virender Sehwag gathered for a unique T20 cricket match on Thursday in Switzerland.
The first Ice Cricket Challenge was played in St Moritz in the Swiss Alps on February 8, when the Afridi XI took on the Sehwag XI in a Twenty20 match.
Source: Twitter
Afridi XI was led by Shahid Afridi and the team included Jacques Kallis, Graeme Smith, Daniel Vettori, Grant Elliot, Nathan McCullum, Owais Shah, Monty Panesar, Shoaib Akthar, Abdul Razzaq, Matt Prior, Aiden Andrews (Switzerland).
Sehwag XI included Ajit Agarkar, Mike Hussey, Mohammad Kaif, Zaheer Khan, Andrew Symonds, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Mahela Jayawardene, Lasith Malinga, Ramesh Powar, Mithan Manhas, Rohain Jain (Switzerland).
Once a King! Forever a King 👑@virendersehwag 👑🙏🤟 #IceCricketChallenge #IceCricket pic.twitter.com/TFZ6gUtVIE — Thamizh (@ssthalafan) February 8, 2018
The Thursday match was played on a frozen, snow-covered lake on an artificial turf carpet, with players using traditional cricket gear and a red ball, but wearing normal sports shoes rather than spikes.
The cricketers played the match with weather at a top of -5 degrees Celsius.
Afridi’s side won the inaugural contest by six wickets. Sehwag’s team batted first and set a target of 165 with skipper Virender Sehwag scoring 62 of 31 balls and Andrew Symonds chipping in with 40 runs.
Afridi’s team dominated proceedings from the start with Graeme Smith getting off to a flyer. Owais Shah’s unbeaten 74 of 34 deliveries and Grant Elliot’s 21 of 11 saw the Afridi’s team reach home with 28 balls to spare.
A second match is scheduled to be played on Friday night. (AEDT)
Cricket.com.au reports cricket has been played on ice in St Moritz for more than 25 years, with the lake’s incredibly thick ice able to withstand more than 200 tons of weight – enough not just for a game for cricket, but also for grandstands to house spectators.
