200th anniversary of Lord's

Lord's cricket ground or just Lord's is named after its founder Thomas Lord & it is owned by Marylebone Cricket Club. Lord's was founded in 1814 & it is widely known as 'Home of Cricket'. So this was wikipedia & all but Home of cricket has become 200 years old now. It was 200th anniversary of Lord's on 5th july, 2014. Every cricketer dreams of playing at Lord's. An international cricketer's career is incomplete if he hasn't played a game at Lord's.

Now what's so special about Lord's that an international cricketer's career is incomplete if he hasn't played there? Its the reception a player get at Lord's, reception at Lord's overwhelm the players. Players are welcomed on the field with the standing ovation & they leave the field with the same kind of reception after the game & that's one of the tradition of Lord's. Moreover a hundered or five-wicket innings make you feel at the top of the world, its not different if you make it anywhere else but Lord's reception & traditions make you feel that you are on top of the world. An international match at Lord's gives you the reason that why cricket is called gentleman's game.

India's connection with Lord's is eight decades old as India played its first match there in 1932 but first glory for India at Lord's came five decades later in 1983 when Kapil Dev lifted the world cup there. Then in 2002 who can forget that historic natwest final which India won in Lord's when Saurav Ganguly displayed agony by removing his shirt. It doesn't end here there are many more stories connected with Lord's. I think we Indians are attached more to that balcony than the ground itself as lots of emotions has been displayed by Indian players through that balcony of Lord's.

Now to celebrate 200th anniversary of Lord's a bicentenary 50-over match was organised between Sachin led MCC & Warne led Rest of World. Sachin's MCC XI consisted Sachin himself, Finch, Lara, Dravid, Chanderpaul, Read, Vettori, Lee, Gul, Tait & Ajmal while Warne's RoW consisted Gilchrist, Sehwag, Tamim Iqbal, Pietersen, Yuvraj, Afridi, Collingwood, Siddle, Warne himself, Muralidharan & Best. I always wanted to see some players of different teams around the world playing together like Yuvraj & Gayle, Yuvraj & KP, Sachin & Lara etc. IPL has brought players all the modern players of different countries around the world together but this match brought the players of yester years together which was rare & most awaited event for any cricket fan. Cricket wouldn't have been celebrated in any better way.

Shane Warne won the toss & elected to bat first. Sehwag & Gilchrist began the innings in typical fashion. It was joy to watch them bat together but after good start RoW was 68/5 thanks to extraordinary spell by Saeed Ajmal then Yuvraj came to their rescue & his blistering century took RoW to 293. When Yuvraj Singh is making runs world becomes most beautiful place to live in. In reply MCC XI got a better start. All those straight drives, backfoot punches, cover drives were coming just right from Sachin's bat until he tried to be too cheecky on 44 & was knocked by Muralidharan.

Lord's gave the standing ovation to the lord of cricket Sachin Tendulkar when he got out & same reception was given to Lara when he came in, he started in typical Lara style but didn't lasted too long in the middle then Dravid got out on the first ball. In between all those legends one man was unstoppable & that was Aaron Finch. He played an incredible innings of 181 & it was some serious Finch hitting at Lord's. As a result MCC XI won the match by 7 wickets. In short cricket was celebrated in the best possible manner.

Moment of the day: Yuvraj Singh touching the feet of Sachin Tendulkar (God of cricket) after playing superb innings of 132. What an occasion it was for Yuvraj to make into the Hall of fame of Lord's.