5 Lesser known fundraising matches involving Indian teams and players

4. ‘Gujarat Earthquake Victims’ Benefit match – India XI vs Australians in 2001:

After a closely fought Test series, the Indian team was set to host Australia in a 5-match ODI series. Soon after the deciding Test in Chennai, both India and Australia came up for a noble cause. A 40-over match named by Siyaram’s Cup was played for the benefit of the ‘Gujarat Earthquake Victims’. An earthquake in Gujarat earlier that year reported at least 14,000 deaths with another 150,000 being injured.

Australia rested some of their top players for this match and decided to use it as a warm-up game. Even Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly gave a miss to the game as Rahul Dravid led the India XI. The over-rate of Australia was quite good as they bowled 12 overs in just 39 minutes which were enough for Sachin Tendulkar to smash as many as 93 runs. Tendulkar held the majority of the strike during his opening partnership with Sadagoppan Ramesh as 127 runs came in only 12 overs.

Sachin entertained the full capacity crowd with his boundaries as he struck 18 fours and two maximums in the 49 balls he faced. Fifties by Hemang Badani and Vijay Dahiya helped India XI to finish with a mammoth score of 338/8. Australians didn’t have much to cheer about their chase barring the quick-fire fifties by Michael Bevan and Justin Langer. They were bowled out for only 184 in 27.1 overs and lost the match by 154 runs.