While the Knights were striding towards the IPL dream, students of eight schools from the state were scripting their own story with the bat and the ball.

Eight schools were selected from among 100 to represent the eastern region in the TTIS presents Dabur Glucose D Cooling Energy Champions Inter School T10 Cricket Tournament.

The final was played at the East Calcutta District Sports Federation Ground on May 18 and Aswininagar JN Mondal Institution-Barrackpore emerged as the champions, defeating Saidabad Manindra Chandra Vidyapith (HS) of Behrampore by 47 runs.

The winners batted first and scored 88 at the loss of five wickets. Chasing the score, Manindra Chandra Vidyapith managed to add only 41 runs to the scoreboard.

Class X student SK. Md. Sharook of the winning team clinched both the Best Batsman and the Best Bowler awards. “We had not expected the tournament to be so interesting. It was a great experience for us,” said the star performer with 26 runs and five wickets in the final.

Bernard Oparanozie, the manager and assistant coach of Mohun Bagan, Dibyendu Biswas, footballer, and Hiranmoy Sen, the general manager (sales) of Dabur, were the guests at the finals.

Hiranmoy Sen (centre, standing) flanked by Dibyendu Biswas (right) and Bernard Oparanozie pose with the winners of T10 Cricket Championship; and (below) Dibyendu Biswas and Bernard Oparanozie share a light moment while watching the match (Bhubaneswarananda Halder)

“The heat was sapping but the winning team beat all odds. Their fielding was very impressive,” said Biswas. He also praised the runners-up for their effort. “Had they not been good they would not have reached the finals.”

Oparanozie,too, was impressed with the boys’ performance. “The match was very interesting. It was a difficult pitch with a bouncy outfield but both the teams fielded very well. Some of the boys are good enough for club cricket,” he said.

Rahul Gupta of the winning team was adjudged Man of the Tournament. The champions, along with 25 students who won a slogan contest organised by Dabur from 100 schools in Bengal will get a chance to meet Sourav Ganguly.

The other participating schools from the region were Midnapore Town School, Krishnanagar High School, Mahisila Government Colony High School-Asansol, Belur High School, Udaypur Haradayal Nag Adarsha Vidyalaya-Barasat and Jadavpur High School-Calcutta. The schools from Krishnagar, Behrampore, Howrah and Barrackpore reached the semi-finals.