India's diplomats, including women, at the UN turned into star cricketers as they joined forces with their counterparts from the Permanent Missions of Pakistan, Australia and Bangladesh and won a match against a team of British diplomats, as the excitement of the ongoing Cricket World Cup reached the world organisation's headquarters here.
The UK Mission to the UN hosted a cricket match Friday evening in the sprawling North Lawn at the UN Headquarters, a rare occurrence that brought diplomats from the cricket-playing nations of the Commonwealth together for a "UK Vs Rest" match.
With England and Wales hosting the 2019 Cricket World Cup, the UK Mission sought to bring the excitement and fervor of cricket's greatest tournament to the United Nations.
The UK Mission's team played against a team that comprised diplomats from the Permanent Missions of India, Pakistan, Australia and Bangladesh.
India's Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador K. Nagaraj Naidu, First Secretary/Legal Adviser in India's Permanent Mission Yedla Umasankar, Counsellor Ashish Sinha and First Secretary Sandeep Kumar Bayyapu made up the team of Indian diplomats donning their cricketing gear and displaying their sporting talents during the match.
The teams also had three women players, bringing some amount of gender inclusion to the game.
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The UK team, batting first, put up a score of 94 runs in the first one hour of the game.
The 'Rest' team, batting for the next one hour, put up a good fight and chased the runs, winning the match by a couple of wickets.
A day before the match, the UK Mission had tweeted a photo showing some of its diplomats practicing for the match, with the caption "We're warming up for tomorrow's #CricketWorldCup2019 clash against Australia, Pakistan & India on the UN North Lawn! Excited to play with our Commonwealth friends!
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