Warne, Ponting help Warriors beat Blasters

An unbeaten 48-run innings from former Australia captain Ricky Ponting and some inspired bowling by spin legend Shane Warne helped Warne's Warriors beat Sachin's Blasters by six wickets in the first T20 All Stars clash.

Sachin's Blasters, put into bat, posted a score of 140/8 in their 20 overs on Saturday.

Tendulkar-Sehwag put on 85 in eight overs with the latter hammering six sixes and three fours in his 55-run innings off just 22 balls.

Shane Warne was named man-of-the-match for figures of 3-20 from four overs at the Citi Field ground.

Warne picked up the wickets of Sachin Tendulkar (26), Brian Lara (1) and V.V.S. Laxman (8) to turn the match his side's way after Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag (55) had got the Blasters off to a rapid start.

The target was comfortably chased down by the Warriors with 16 balls and six wickets to spare with Ponting leading the way in run chase with an unbeaten 48 from just 38 balls, including three sixes.

Ponting was assisted by Sri Lankan legend Kumar Sangakkara, who contributed 41 runs in front of a crowd of 36,000.

The All-Star series moves to Houston and Los Angeles in the next week. This series in America, conceptualised by Tendulkar and Warne, is aimed at generating a greater supporter base for the game in America.

The teams:

Sachin's Blasters: Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, VVS Laxman, Brian Lara, Mahela Jayawardene, Carl Hooper, Shaun Pollock, Moin Khan, Shoaib Akhtar, Muttiah Muralitharan, Curtly Ambrose.

Warne's Warriors: Matthew Hayden, Jacques Kallis, Ricky Ponting, Kumar Sangakkara, Andrew Symonds, Jonty Rhodes, Wasim Akram, Daniel Vettori, Shane Warne, Courtney Walsh, Allan Donald.