The Vatican team, mainly composed of seminarians from Britain, the Indian subcontinent and Sri Lanka studying for the priesthood in Rome, emerged victorious after initially scoring 135 for six wickets.

Top-scorer was Father Shehan with 51. 

In reply, the Inter-Faith XI, composed of British Christians, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs,  were unlucky to lose a few early wickets, including that of Michael Arnold, brother of former Sri Lankan cricketer Russell, and the top-scorer was Kashif, with 16. 

Lord Patel provided support with 12 runs but in the end, St. Peter’s won at the Capanelle grounds in Rome by 70 runs.

The visit reciprocated one last year to the grounds at Walthamstow in London, which was also won by the Vatican, and which symbolically took place on the 15th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks in the United States.

On that occasion, the trophies were presented by former England captain Graham Gooch.

St Peter's was founded in 2013, under the auspices of the Pontifical Council for Culture, to promote the values embodied by one of the world’s most popular sports.

A key role in the foundation was played by John McCarthy, a former Australian ambassador to the Holy See.

Among the British Inter-Faith team were two Labour politicians, Lord Patel of Bradford and Councillor Forhad Hussain of the London Borough of Newham.

Patel is a director of the England and Wales Cricket Board and, as a Hindu with a Muslim wife, gave an interview to Vatican Radio in which he stressed how such events forged ties between people of different faiths.

St Peter's previously played the Archbishop of Canterbury's XI, a team based in Kent, comprised of members of the Anglican branch of Christianity, and also visited Birmingham to play a Muslim team from Batley in Yorkshire.

They have also played British military chaplains at Aldershot and members of the Royal household staff at Windsor and had a meeting with Pope Francis three years ago.