Stars of yesteryear bring runs aplenty to the Swiss Alps

WATCH: Jacques Kallis and Owais Shah cashed in as the famous St Moritz frozen lake provided the setting for an extraordinary two days of cricket

^{The Royals (orange) took on the Palace Diamonds (blue)}

Set against the stunning Swiss Alps on the frozen lake at St Moritz, this was a cricket match like no other.

Some of the world's biggest stars of yesteryear converged on the picturesque mountain resort last week to take part in an extraordinary festival of the sport, in one of its most unusual locations.

Players including Graeme Smith, Shahid Afridi, Jacques Kallis, Matt Prior and Shoaib Akhtar made up the two teams who competed in two Twenty20 matches on consecutive days against a breath-taking backdrop of snow-covered peaks.

Staged on an artificial turf carpet, placed at the centre of the famous lake, the matches saw plenty of runs - 330 in the first game and 411 in the second.

^{Action from the event in St Moritz}

While obviously somewhat gimmicky, those spectators who did brave temperatures of -5 degrees Celsius and below did get to see plenty of action.

Both matches were won by the Royals, who featured players from South Africa, New Zealand, England and Pakistan.

In the first exchange, on Thursday, they restricted the Palace Diamonds - made up of players from Australia, India and Sri Lanka - to 164 for nine from their 20 overs.

Virender Sehwag, wrapped up in more layers than he would even have used in an early English-summer Test morning at Headingley, kept himself warm by hitting 62 in 31 balls while Andrew Symonds contributed 40 lower down the order.

THE RESULTS

Match 1: Royals 166-4 (Shah 74*) beat Palace Diamonds 164-9 (Sehwag 62, Symonds 40; Abdul Razzaq 4-18) by six wickets.

Match 2: Royals 206-2 (Kallis 90*, Smith 58, Shah 43*) bt Palace Diamonds 205-5 (Symonds 67*, Kaif 57, Sehwag 46; Abdul Razzag 3-48) by eight wickets

Owais Shah led the response for the Royals, who rattled along to their target with more than four overs remaining.

Shah made 74 in 34 balls, with Kallis adding 36.

The following day, the story was similar.

Again batting first, the Palace Diamonds made substantially more runs - finishing on 205 for five as Symonds and Mohammad Kaif made half-centuries - but again it did not prove to be enough.

Kallis made 90 from just 37 balls and Smith contributed 58 as the Royals won with more than three overs to spare.