The two World Cup finals that England has played at the Eden Gardens — and lost — proved to be prophetic as ‘India in the UK’, comprising people of Indian origin residing in the UK, and ‘UK in India’, comprising employees of the British diplomatic mission here, clashed at the iconic stadium for a T20 match to vie for the Indo-British Heritage Cup.
India in the UK posted 176, batting first, with Anirban Aditya top scoring with 27 not out, followed by Vedant Pacshia at 25 not out. UK in India stayed in the hunt almost till the end, needing 13 in the final over. But with 11 left to score in the last three balls, a refusal to take a single and a failure to connect the second-last delivery meant leaving too much to do off the last ball. The match was thus decided by a margin of nine runs.
“We have to accept defeat. We lost by almost the same margin as we lost to Australia on this very ground in the 1987 World Cup final. We suffered the humiliation of Ben Stokes being hit for four sixes (in the final over of the T20 World Cup final against West Indies in 2016). Again the UK suffered,” lamented British high commissioner Alex Ellis, who turned out for the UK in India team and retired after scoring 25 off 32 balls.
Players and officials of the India in the UK team and the presenters with the champion’s trophy
High commissioner Alex Ellis and Cricket Association of Bengal joint secretary Debabrata Das hand over the Man of the Match trophy to Judhajit Mukherjee
Daughter Mariana checks out Nick Low’s participation trophy as son Rafael stands at the centre
The runners-up team UK in India
Winning captain Koushik Chatterjee in a post-match chat with emcee Sourav Niyogi
“It’s a hat trick (of losses) for them,” quipped Judhajit Mukherjee, the Man of the Match who was a part of the victorious India in the UK side in all three annual matches held so far. “Aschhe bochhor abar hobe (there will be a rerun nest year),” countered UK in India captain Amit Sengupta, taking up the challenge.
The highest scorer was Timon Basu, who hit 30 not out. “Our rule is one has to retire at 25. He hit a six on reaching 24,” laughed Suranjan Som, president of the UK-based charity Bengal Heritage Foundation, which preserves and promotes Bengal heritage in the UK and which organised the match jointly with Indo-British Scholars’ Association, British Deputy High Commission and British Council. On learning Timon was from Durham, winning captain Koushik Chatterjee commented: “He should have been in our team.”
British deputy high commissioner Nick Low, who was in the team reserves, was pragmatic. “The last two years, the game became one-sided two-thirds of the way. There are only 20 of us at the deputy high commission and for most of us, this is the only time of the year when we play. Our colleagues from the British Council join us. In fact, I didn’t think it would get so close. We gave away too many extras by way of wides and boundaries past the wicket-keeper,” he reflected.