Rest of the World wrap up charity win

Ricky Ponting smashed a century for the World XI

The Rest of the World XI beat their Asian counterparts by 112 runs in Melbourne in the Tsunami Appeal charity match on Monday.

Set a daunting target of 345 to win in 50 overs, the Asian XI were bowled out for 232 with New Zealand spinner Daniel Vettori taking 3-58 in 10 overs.

India batsman Rahul Dravid top scored with 75 from 71 balls, but the Asian side never looked likely to get near their target.

Ricky Ponting did the damage for the Rest of the World XI, scoring a blistering 115 from only 102 balls.

More than 70,000 people packed the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the match in support of victims of the tsunami in southern Asia and west Africa that has claimed more than 155,000 lives.

A minute’s silence was held before the start of the match, which was organised in only 12 days and featured players from Australia, New Zealand, West Indies, England, Sri Lanka, India and Pakistan.

The game was broadcast in 122 countries to an estimated global television audience of one billion and raised more than $8 million (£4 million).

Always playing catch-up, the Asian side lost wickets at regular intervals and only Dravid, who finished unbeaten on 75 from 71 balls, seemed capable of turning the match into a real contest.

India opener Virender Sehwag got the innings off to a good start, smashing 45 from 39 balls including five fours, before he hooked Shane Warne to Chris Gayle on the boundary.

Sanath Jayasuriya, whose mother was injured in the disaster, was first out for 28 when he edged Chris Cairns to Stephen Fleming, who had earlier dropped a simple chance with Sehwag on nine.

Asian captain Sourav Ganguly found runs hard to come by before he smashed a ball straight to Darren Gough to give Vettori the first of his three wickets.

Yousuf Youhana (4) quickly followed, and although Dravid and the lively Kumar Sangakkara threatened to turn things around, the wicket of the Sri Lankan wicketkeeper for 24 effectively ended their hopes.

Abdul Razzaq and Chaminda Vaas both succumbed to Vettori’s spin as the tail failed to provide support to Dravid.

When 11th man Muttiah Muralitharan was run out for a duck the match came to a predictable conclusion.

Earlier Ponting’s man-of-the-match performance, including three sixes and eight fours, had helped the Rest of the World overcome a slow start.

Opener Chris Gayle had only scored one run before he fell in the second over after getting a faint edge to an attempted drive off Zaheer Khan.

Khan dropped fellow opener Adam Gilchrist off his own bowling when the Australian was on 13, but he could only add 11 runs before he too nicked Khan to give wicket-keeper Sangakkara his second catch.

From a position of 50 for two Ponting took over, putting on more than 200 runs with first Brian Lara (52) and then Chris Cairns (69) as the Asian side’s bowling figures took a hammering.

Ponting had been dropped by Anil Kumble early in his innings, but the Indian spinner got his belated revenge as Ponting came down the pitch and missed to give Sangakkara an easy stumping with the score at 263 for four.

Surprise number six Glenn McGrath fell to Muralitharan in the next over for a first-ball duck but New Zealand duo Fleming (30) and Vettori (27) kept the momentum going with quick-fire knocks.

Sri Lankan hero Muralitharan returned the best bowling figures with 3-59 from his 10 overs.