India Legends vs South Africa Legends Live Score: IND L on top as SA L crumble in 218-run chase

That is a hark back to when Irfan Pathan used to bowl circles around the best batters of the mid-2000s. Swinging late into the right hander Eddie Leie has absolutely no clue about it, loses his stumps. 

Leie b Irfan Pathan 0 (3), SA L 128/8 in 17.3 overs

He has smacked back to back fours off Pragyan Ojha in the 17th over. Rhodes didn’t play too much T20 cricket, his prime was well before the birth of the format itself. But he has probably been exposed to high quality T20 batters the most in this team as he is a regular in the T20 circuit as a coach. 

BOWLED HIM! Munaf slows that down to a crawl and Botha plays all around it. South Africa are positively crumbling now. There really hasn’t been a contest in this match. 

Botha b Patel 8 (5), SA L 106/6

Botha sends Munaf flying over deep square leg. SA L could use an over in which most shots go flying over the boundary because their required rate has just crept over 20. 

LBW again and Rudolph is gone. South Africa are crumbling now. Captain Jonty Rhodes is in the middle with Johan Botha. 

Rudolph lbw b Rahul 16 (14), 95/5 in 13.2 overs

Henry Davids giving himself just too much space there. Backs away to such an extent that he has left stumps completely unguarded and the ball just taps onto the middle stump.  

Davids b Yuvraj Singh 6 (6), SA L 90/4 in 12 overs

Petersen hits Ojha over cover for six off the first ball of the 11th over. Ojha then flights it even more, Petersen takes the bait, misses it completely and is stumped by Naman Ojha. 

Petersen st NV Ojha b PP Ojha 10 (9), SA L 77/3 in 10.2 overs

Jacques Rudolph and Alvaro Petersen, both new batters and India will be looking to keep the foot on SA L here. 

Big shout for LBW, the umpire raises his finger and Rahul Sharma does a Shikhar Dhawan-esque kabaddi celebration. 

Puttick c Tendulkar b PP Ojha 23 (24), SA L 58/2 in 8.4 overs

It has been good going so far from India. South Africa are 28/0 in 4 overs but their required rate is above 11 already. 

Manpreet Gony bowls the second over. Pathan had been hit for back to back sixes by Puttick in that first over. 

Irfan Pathan bowling the first over, Andrew Puttick and Morne Van Wyk open for South Africa Legends. 218 is the target, they better get going. 

There have been 16 extras in this innings. All of them wide deliveries and nine of them coming from Johan Van der Wath alone. Van der Wath also bowled a lung-bust of an over in which he had to steam in 12 times. It is hot and humid in Kanpur and Van der Wath will certainly need a cold towel or two on his legs. 

74 runs in the last five overs. Pathan ends the innings with another six. A vintage Yusuf Pathan finish here, the partnership betwen him and Binny has produced 88 runs in just 40 balls!

Ntini looking for the yorker on off stump, ends up sending in a nice juicy half volley that Pathan swats back past the bowler. 

Ntini bowls short but the old man has no pace, Pathan pulls it easily over the boundary. That would have been a wicket or a case of Pathan trying to find cover if Ntini was in his prime. 

Stuart Binny might just end up being head and shoulders above everyone else this year at this rate. Another six straight down the ground, he has scored 81 off 40!

Garnett Kruger sends it down straight and Yusuf Pathan hits him right back over his head for his first six of the innings. India get to 190 with that in 18.2 overs. 

Stuart Binny is unstoppable today. Hits Ntini straight down the ground for his fifth six. That is five fours and five sixes for him now. 

A four off the first ball of the 17th by Binny and then he takes the single to reach his fifty. He is in great touch and has hardly been troubled throughout this innings. 

Van der Wath bends down to catch his breath after that over. He has run in 12 times there, six times he has bowled it wide. Add to it the fact that Binny smacked him down the ground for a four off the second last ball and that makes it 14 runs off that over. 

Yuvraj goes and he hasn’t troubled the scorers too much today. He gets replaced by Yusuf Pathan. 

Yuvraj c Botha b van der Wath 6 (8), IND L 129/4 in 14.3 overs

The end of an entertaining innings from Suresh Raina. Looking to go big again but he ends up holing out at long-on. It means that Yuvraj Singh now enters the fray. 

Raina c van der Wath b Leie 33 (22), India Legends 116/3 in 12.3 overs

India 99/2 in 11 overs. Binny first hits one over extra cover. He is then denied a four by a brilliant effort from the 53-year-old Jhonty Rhodes and looks pretty angry with himself. Binny then sends the last ball of the over above long-on into the stands. 

Smashed! Raina sends Botha flying over long-on. That is the first six of the day and probably many more to come, considering the likes of Yusuf Pathan and Yuvraj Singh are yet to come. 

Raina has made 19 in 13 balls, Binny is on 9 off 8. This has been good going from India, Raina has hit maybe one loose shot so far. Looking almost infallible at the moment.

Eddie Leie strays down the leg side and Raina just swats it behind for his third boundary. 

Straight into the hands of Rhodes at cover. Johan van der Wath gets India’s dangerous opener. 

Ojha c Rhodes b van der Wath 21 (18), India 52/2 in 6.1 overs

Raina smacks the second delivery he faced to sweeper cover and he is off. Raina has only been retired officially for less than a week, although it has been a while since he played any kind of competitive cricket. 

Silence around the Green Park stadium before a wave of applause for the master. It is Makhaya Ntini who gets the wicket, Johan Botha takes the catch. It means Suresh Raina enters the crease. 

Tendulkar c Botha b Ntini 16 (15), India 46/1 in 5.2 overs

The fifth ball of the over and Tendulkar sends it flying. Andrew Puttick is at mid-on, misjudged the trajectory of the ball it seems and he puts in a last second dive. Misses the ball completely and ends up face down on the ground. 

This time over long off. He picked the length early and put that in the emptiest patch of the field. Four more for the great. 

Tendulkar dances down the track to Ntini and sends him flying over long-on. One bounce for four. A wonderful shot and he is off. India are 38/0 in 4 overs. 

390 Test wickets, 266 ODI wickets, 6 wickets in T20Is, front on action. We have a true blue South African legend getting ready to steam in. 

Ojha seems the only one who is not rusty on the field at the moment. A booming cover drive for his third boundary of the innings. 

It hasn’t been pretty viewing so far but who cares when you get to watch Tendulkar bat again. Botha had sent the second ball of the over way down the leg side and that went for five wides after which Tendulkar tucked one to cover point to take a single. 

The over ends with a second boundary. This time Ojha hits it through midwicket. The first over has produced 9 runs, with the first delivery going wide. Johan Botha bowls the next over and it will be Sachin Tendulkar on strike. 

Short from Kruger, Ojha pulls it away and it goes to the boundary. First runs for Ojha and India. 

It’s Sachin Tendulkar, wearing the India Legends helmet, walking out amid fireworks with former India wicketkeeper Naman Ojha. Cue the loud cheers from Kanpur. 

National anthems of both nations playing out in Kanpur. They are all players that we have seen before, only a few extra wrinkles on their faces and some more weight around their torsos. But here they are, ready to rev up the old engines once again.

Henry Davids, Morne van Wyk (wicketkeeper), Alviro Petersen, Jacques Rudolph, Jonty Rhodes (captain), Johan Botha, Eddie Leie, Johan van der Wath, Garnett Kruger, Makhaya Ntini, Andrew Puttick

Sachin Tendulkar(c), Naman Ojha(w), Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Stuart Binny, Manpreet Gony, Munaf Patel, Rahul Sharma, Pragyan Ojha

India Legends have won the toss and chosen to bat. 

New Zealand were not represented in any way in the first season of this tournament. They will be led by Ross Taylor, who ended his illustrious playing career earlier this year. 

It was India who had won last year’s tournament, beating Sri Lanka by 14 runs in Raipur to take the title. Tillakaratne Dilshan was the player of the tournament, finishing as highest scorer with 271 runs and highest wicket taker with 12 wickets. Talk about an all-round performance!

One of the names who did not feature in last year’s tournament is Suresh Raina. The former India batter announced his retirement from all forms of cricket earlier this week and confirmed his partiticipation. 

The Road Safety World Series (RSWS) is supported by the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways and the Ministry of Information & Technology and Youth Affairs & Sports Government of India. 27th Sports, backed by US-based 27th Investments, are the exclusive marketing rights holder of the league while Professional Management Group (PMG) is the event management partner.

Jonty Rhodes(c), Morne van Wyk(w), Alviro Petersen, Jacques Rudolph, Henry Davids, Vernon Philander, Johan Botha, Lance Klusener, Zander de Bruyn, Makhaya Ntini, Garnett Kruger, Andrew Puttick, Johan van der Wath, Thandi Tshabalala, Eddie Leie, Lloyd Norris Jones

Sachin Tendulkar (captain), Naman Ojha (wicketkeeper), Yuvraj Singh, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Stuart Binny, Manpreet Gony, Harbhajan Singh, Munaf Patel, Vinay Kumar, Abhimanyu Mithun, Pragyan Ojha, S Badrinath, Rahul Sharma, Rajesh Pawar

Kanpur’s Green Park Stadium is where today’s match will take place, starting at 7.30pm of course. Seven matches will be played here after which the tournament moves to Indore where five games will be played. Dehradun will then host eight matches after which the semi-final and the final will be played in Raipur.

The legends are back and Kanpur is lighting up once again as a plethora of yesteryear cricket stars dust of their old cricket equipment and their creaking limbs to get a feel of the good old days. Every single one of these players have often taken part in extraordinary matches and led their respective teams to victory with their individual brilliance and while this series may not be quite as high stakes as those older games, it will surely be something to see the likes of Tendulkar and Lara get their competitive juices flowing again.