Courtesy a sure-footed knock by Evin Lewis of 58(26) runs complimented with Kesrick Williams' three-for, West Indies beat ICC World XI by 72 runs to win Hurricane Relief charity match at the Lord's on Thursday.
ICC World XI required 200 runs to win, but fine bowling from the Carlos Brathwaite's side restricted the side to 127 runs in the T20I game staged with the support of the MCC, ECB and ICC to raise funds to rebuild and restore five cricket venues in the Caribbean that were damaged by Hurricanes Irma and Maria last year.
Lewis played a sure-footed inning of 58 runs off 26 balls, with five boundaries and six each at the strike rate of 223.07. While Denesh Ramdin and Marlon Samuels played innings of 44 and 43 runs respectively.
The World XI side was led by former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi, who played his last international t20 match today.
Samel Badree and Andre Russel bagged two wickets each, while Brathwaite took one.
Only Thisara Perera played a formidable inning for the World XI with 61 runs off 37 balls, with seven boundaries and three sixes, on the strike rate of 164.86. Shoaib Malik and Shahid Afridi took a wicket each, while Afghanistan's Rashid Khan bagged two.
The match was staged to raise funds to rebuild and restore five major cricket venues in the Caribbean that were damaged by Hurricanes Irma and Maria last year.
Earlier, the World XI won the toss and elected to field first against West Indies.
Playing for a cause
This was not the first instance the cricketing community is coming together to help those in need. In 1986, a campaign titled the ‘Race against Time’ took place to help with famine relief in Africa. Part of the campaign was a cricket match that was played at Edgbaston and featured the likes of Imran Khan and Ian Botham in the World XI.
In 2005, the Melbourne Cricket Ground hosted the World Cricket Tsunami Appeal in match between the World XI, led by former Australia captain Ricky Ponting, and Asia XI which was captained by India’s Sourav Ganguly. The match contributed over AUS$14 million to support the humanitarian relief efforts following the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of December 26, 2004.
Fast forward to 2015, when Help for Heroes XI took on the Rest of the World XI in a T20 match at The Oval to help a UK charity raise nearly $650,000 for veterans, military personnel and their families.
