Brothers Union retained the title of Port City League T20 Cup beating Chittagong Tigers by three wickets in a nail-biting final at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium yesterday. Led by a fightback from the late-order batsmen, Brothers Union overhauled the victory target of 130 with three wickets in hand and two balls to spare. Despite being a low-scoring affair, the match lived up to the billing with the momentum shifting from one side to the other till the very end.

Batting first on winning the toss, Chittagong Tigers posted a decent total of 129 runs losing seven wickets, thanks to a thrashing half-century from opener Shamsur Rahman Shuvo. The hard-hitting right-hander smashed three sixes and a couple of boundaries in his 39-ball 51 that

held the innings together and gave Tigers the score of 129 after 20 overs. No other batsman found it easy going on a slow wicket, especially dealing with veteran Abdur Razzaq who bowled a miserly spell of left- arm spin taking three wickets.

Chasing the 130-run target. Brothers Union struggled to get runs early and lost half of their batsmen within fifty runs after 12 overs. Then skipper Tushar Imran and Pakistani all-rounder Azhar Mehmood stuck a fine partnership of 47 runs to keep them in the game. Howver, after their departure, at 103 for seven in 18 overs, Brothers Union looked down and out. But wily Mohammad Rafiq and big-hitter Ziaur Rahman had other ideas as they turned on the slog on the inexperienced Chittagong Tigers pacers Abul Hasan and AlauddinBabu.

Rafiq blasted Hasan to a six and a four and then leg-byed one for four to take the equation to ten needed from six balls. After two singles in the first two balls of the

twentieth over from Babu, Ziaur Rahman launched the next two for a boundary and a six to take Brothers past the victory target to 132 for seven. The Brothers Union players broke into wild rapture on retaining the title.

Brothers Unions’ Abdur Razzaq got the man-of-the-match award and also the highest wicket-taker's award for ten wickets in the tournament. His teammate Imran Nazir became the highest run-scorer and man-of-the-series with 183 runs.

SCORES IN BRIEF

CHITTAGONGTIGERS: 129forsevenin20 overs (Shamsur 51, Vincent 13, Abdur rzaaq 3 wickets)

BROTHERS UNION: 132 for seven in 19.4 overs (Azhar 26, Tushar 21, Junaed 17, Ziaur 17 not out, Rafiq 10notout;EnamuI3wickets) Result: Brothers Union of Chittagong won by three wickets Man-of-the-match: Abdur Razzaq Man-of-the-series: Imran Nazir