Spaghetti strap Mandira Bedi seems to have picked up a few cricketing shots over the last two years, and why not? After all she had been rubbing shoulders with the likes of Barry Richard, Geoff Boycott and Sanjay Manjrekar ever since the launch of the second edition of Extra Innings by Sony-Set Max.

She pulled and drove with finesse to cruise her team the district women's team to post a comfortable win over the HPCL's women team here on Sunday.

She was here along with her co-host and sports commentator, Charu Sharma, to promote Gully Cricket, an event sponsored by Set Max.

Curtain raiser

Speaking to the media before the Gully Cricket session,vice-president (sales) of Set Max T. Gangadhar said that the event is being held in select eight cities like Visakhpatnam, Nagpur, Amritsar, Ahmedabad and Hyderabad to bring women into cricket viewing.

"It also acts as a curtain raiser before the ICC World Cup that is scheduled to commence from October 7," he pointed out. Mandira observed: "Cricket is a national passion and it is no more a male's domain. Gully Cricket is just a promotional activity to raise the level of enthusiasm among women."

Briefing on Extra Innings, Charu Sharma said, "The little over three-hour programme is nothing but a wedding between entertainment and sports.

On Extra Innings

There is going to be a lot of innovation in this edition of Extra Innings to give the viewers the best cricketing time." Extra Innings is going to be phased in three sessions: pre-match, mid-match and post-match.

Apart from hardcore cricket talk and analysis by an expert panel comprising former cricketing legends like Geoff Boycott, Barry Richards, Navjot Singh Sidhu and Sanjay Manjrekar, the show is going to be packaged with interactive sessions with the viewers and will contain a lot of lighter moments.

Gully Cricket was played at two venues in the city: at the HPCL club and at the YMCA.