I was really keen on watching a few T20 World Cup matches, but due to unforeseeen circumstances, I had to remain in India for the entire duration of the championship. It’s a different issue that the countries I was backing made early exits from the tournament. Nevertheless, I was quite kicked. Unfortunately, things didn’t pan out early. So, while waiting to be back in the UK, I found out that there was a T20 exhibition match being played at Lord’s, the home of cricket between Rajasthan Royals and Middlesex Panthers on 6th July. I was pretty certain that I would be in London in time to watch the match and I immediately booked a couple of tickets and eventually got to be at Lord’s yesterday.

A couple of big names were missing from Rajasthan Royals team, as most key players were missing including Graeme Smith, Yusuf Pathan etc, while Tyron Henderson turned out for Middlesex Panthers. Royals were led by Shane Warne and had Dimitri Mascarhenhas and Sohail Tanvir. Middlesex team was fully represented and led by Shaun Udal. It was a bit of a damp squib as there were several false starts due to rain and I wasn’t even sure if there would be a game given the intermittent drizzle. True to T20 style, there were a few pre-match performances by famed Indian pop singers like Taz etc and the atmosphere was incredible. The match however, turned out to be a one sided affair with Rajasthan Royals winning it comfortably. I would love to come back to Lords for an international match.

British Asian T20 Match

Rajasthan Royals Vs Middlesex Panthers

Scores Summary (From Cricinfo)

Rajasthan Royals 162 for 5 (Swapnil Asnodkar 41, Mohammed Kaif 41, Dimitri Mascarenhas 32*) beat Middlesex Panthers 116 for 7 (Dawid Malan 34, Sohail Tanvir 3-20) by 46 runs