At the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Cricket Stadium in this city on Wednesday, the India Legends and the Australia Legends will play in the first semifinal of the Road Safety World Series T20 competition.
The cricket rivalry between India and Australia is one of the most eagerly anticipated matches on the cricket field, and supporters anxiously anticipated an India-Australia matchup in the current competition.
Three of their five games this season ended in a tie owing to the constant rain, which hasn't been kind to the Sachin Tendulkar-led India Legends, the defending champions. But even though the two games the Men in Blue won were lopsided, they may be proud of their outstanding efforts against South Africa and England Legends.
With his strike against England in Dehradun, captain Tendulkar rolled back the years. When given the chance to speak their minds, Stuart Binny, Yusuf Pathan, Suresh Raina, and Yuvraj Singh all erupted with the bat.
The bowling staff of the India Legends has performed admirably during the three innings and will be aiming to put on another effective performance against Shane Watson and company. In the three games they've played, the pace battery and the spin unit performed admirably. They gained confidence from their bowling performance against the Windies, in which they stopped the Caribbean Legends from scoring a large total in the final few overs despite having gone for runs in the opening half of their bowling innings.
India Legends players have shown their mettle with the bat in what little opportunity they've had, despite three games being postponed due to rain. The Men in Blue would try to bring their A-Game against a worthy opponent in the opening knockout game of the second edition.
The Australia Legends' tournament run got off to a disappointing start, but the Men in Yellow recovered with a thrilling victory over Bangladesh. After that, Watson and his group didn't look back and routed the West Indies in their subsequent match to get to the semifinals. Captain Watson is in commanding shape and intends to maintain the advantage against the Indians.
The Australian bowling attack, comprising Brett Lee, Dirk Nannes, Nathan Reardon, and Bryce McGain, among others looks equally potent.