Nazrul Shikkha Manzil school champions

JUNIOR TIGERS OF 2009: Players of Meherpur's Kabi Nazrul Shikkha Manzil celebrate with the trophy after defeating Chittagong's Railway Hospital Colony City Corporation High School in the final of the Standard Chartered Young Tigers U-16 National School Cricket Championship at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.Photo: STAR

Kabi Nazrul Shikkha Manzil of Meherpur clinched the title of the Standard Chartered Young Tigers National School Cricket tournament with an exciting one-wicket victory over Railway Hospital Colony City Corporation High School of Chittagong yesterday.
In the low-scoring final at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur, Rajon Ahmed guided the southwestern region school to victory in the very last over when he followed up his three-wicket haul with an unbeaten 10-ball 13 that featured two well-timed boundaries.
Railway won the toss and elected to bat, but Rajon proved their decision wrong by inflicting the initial damage as they were reduced to 43 for three.
The port city school failed to recover from the early hiccups and were eventually bowled out for 133 runs in 49.5 overs. They looked in total disarray and opener Mohammad Jewel's 24 was the saving grace as they managed to take the total past 100.
Besides Rajon's three for 24, Ashik Parvez also picked up three wickets for 18 runs.
While replying, an opening stand of 64 between skipper Sayeed Hossain and opener Anwar Hossain took Kabi Nazrul to an impregnable position. But the winners still got a real scare when nine wickets fell in a matter of 50 runs. But, the victors finally gasped to their target of 134 with just two balls to spare.
Sayeed made 34 off 84 balls that contained four boundaries while Anwar added 31 off 69 balls that saw one four and a six.
Minhaj Uddin Rubel of Railway was adjudged man-of-the-tournament and batsman-of-the-tournament with 445 runs from eight matches and Abdul Latif Ratul of Chagalniya Pilot High School, Feni became the bowler-of-the-tournament with 25 wickets from 6 matches.
Sandeep Mukherjee, head of human resources of Standard Chartered Bank, was present during the occasion as the chief guest.
A total of 464 schools from 64 districts and Dhaka Metro participated in this year's school competition which started on February 7 across the country.
BRIEF SCORE
RAILWAY HOSPITAL COLONY: 133 in 49.5 overs (Jewel 24, Abrar 13, Ibrahim 12, Arafatul 10, Enamul 20 not out, extras 11; Rajon 3-24, Ashik 3-18, Shahinur 2-11)
KABI NAZRUL: 134-9 in 49.4 overs (Sayeed 34, Anwar 32, Shahinur 14, Rajon 13 not out, extras 21; Enamul 3-23, Ibrahim 2-20)
Result: Kabi Nazrul won by one wicket.