The ‘INDO BRITISH HERITAGE CUP’ is an annual tradition where a friendly match was played to further strengthen th United Kingdom- India relations through Cricket. The match was played between ‘UK in India’ Vs ‘India in UK’.
For the third time in a row, Team India in the UK lifted the Indo-British Heritage Cup at Kolkata ‘s very own historic Eden Gardens.
The ‘India in UK’ team batted first and put up a total of 176/7 in 19.5 overs.
The ‘UK in India’ team put up a strong performance with the opening pair of Alex W Ellis and Timon Basu but fell short of 9 runs. The team was 167/7 at 20 overs.
Heartiest congratulations to India in the UK on their hat-trick of wins in this competition. Both teams came up with some stellar performance, and it was a privilege for me to be a part of this event for the first time as a player, “ said Amit Sengupta skipper of UK in India, who featured as a middle-order batsman for his side..
“We lost by virtually the same margin as England to Australia on the same ground 35 years ago (England had lost by seven runs). At one point, it was being gently suggested by India in UK that I keep on batting since I was batting so slowly. They didn’t want to get me out! I don’t suppose that counts as sledging… I really enjoyed my time on the pitch today and to have played on the same surface that has been graced by so many of the game’s greatest was an absolute privilege,” said Alex Ellis (right), the British high commissioner to India, whose neat 25 off 32 for UK in India was not as slow as his opponents would have him believe.
On a winter afternoon of bright sunshine and mild breeze, this was a wonderful cricket match with a climax almost as good as an IPL encounter. A big thank you to HSBC for making this event possible and also to the Cricket Association of Bengal (CAB), represented on the day by vice-president Amalendu Biswas and honorary joint secretary Debabrata Das, for their unstinting cooperation and support. We hope to be back with the fourth edition of this competition at the same time, same place, next year,” said BHF’s Sourav Niyogi, who also pitched in as a lively commentator for the afternoon.
