Sehwag, Kartik play Twenty20 match with Tihar jail inmates

New Delhi, Jan 12 : Like any other nerve-wrecking Twenty20 cricket match, a similar game with full of nail-biting moments was played Monday between the Tihar jail inmates who were joined by the players of Indian team.

Virender Sehwag, off-spinner Murli Kartrik and all-rounder Shikhar Dhawan joined the semi-finals of Twenty20 cricket match played between the inmates of Jail Number 1 and Jail Number 2.

Santosh Singh, who has been awarded death sentence by the Delhi High Court in Priyadarshini Mattoo murder case, led the first team while Manu Sharma, convicted for gunning down model Jessica Lal, was the captain of the second team.

The match was played in the ground of one of the jails. Around 500 prisoners, seated on the stands, made the match more interesting with their shouts, cheers and clap.

They danced to the tunes of songs played on the loudspeakers with every single run scored or even fall of the wickets.

"What else you need when players of Indian cricket team are playing in front of you. I am enjoying every bit of it," said a prisoner.

However, the last few minutes were breath-taking when batting second team had to score six runs off the last six balls. The suspense continued till the last ball.

On the last ball, the batting side needed to score two runs to win the match, but only one run could be scored. And the match ended in a tie.

Sehwag, Kartik and Dhawan were seen biting nails after the match. Of course, they had their followers all over.

"I am surprised to see their enthusiasm for cricket. Before coming to jail, I used to think about life of an inmate. But now, when I have come here, I feel that they live equally freely here as outside," said Sehwag.

Kartik joined Sehwag and appreciated efforts by the jail authorities in organising the cricket match.

Tihar director general B.K. Gupta said: "I am grateful to players of Indian team. I would like to emphasis that not in a single jail all over the world you would witness such environment and atmosphere where inmates are free to witness any match."

--IANS