Message from BIDA National Sports Co-ordinator
Mukesh Hemmady FRCS(Tr.&Orth)
BIDA President’s Cup Cricket final 2022
On a beautiful summer’s day, Wigan and North Wales divisions locked horns into what turned out to be a mouth watering contest. Wigan won the toss and elected to bat. Their openers, Adi and Diya Badge had a steady stand of 35 for the first wicket before Diya was out stumped. The opening bowlers for North Wales bowled with metronomic accuracy and excellent field placements restricted the run rate. Senior Badge arrived at the crease to give company to his son and there was a flurry of boundaries and sixes and both batsmen scored centuries. Then came Shehzad who with his lusty hitting scored a quickfire 29. Wigan’s innings closed on a whopping 294 for 5 in 30 overs which I am reliably informed is a record score in a BIDA match.
North Wales’s run chase was somewhat stymied by the early fall of wickets but the ship was steadied by veterans Ravi Adapala(42) and Tushar Mahambrey(78) and at one time it appeared that they would make a good fist of the chase but Badge senior struck to get a vital breakthrough by bowling Adapala to put the brakes on the Welsh run chase. The run rate kept climbing and score board pressure kicked in and the Nort Walians had to go for it resulting in a clatter of wickets and their innings folded on 193 handing victory to the hosts by 101 runs.
Adi Badge was declared man of the match
The game was played in good spirit and camaraderie. Old friendships were renewed and new ones forged. Family members, in particular children,seemed to have had a whale of a time on a beautiful sunny day
For the Badge family it was a script no one could have written. Their family visiting from India saw the grandson and son in law score match winning tons and the grandfather handed the Man of the match prize to the grandson-a script written by the Gods!
Two records in this tournament-highest score in a BIDA game and Diya Badge was the first girl to play for BIDA and I hope she is a trail blazer!
All in all a good day out and a fitting finale to the BIDA cricket season 2022.Hopefully,we have shaken off the cobwebs of the pandemic.
Best Wishes
Mukesh Hemmady FRCS(Tr.&Orth)
BIDA National Sports Co-ordinator