The Victory Day T20 Cup came to an end yesterday with Shakib Al Hasan's Prime Bank Cricket Club (PBCC) being crowned champions after comprehensively beating Tamim Iqbal's UCB-BCB XI by 55 runs in the final at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

The short tournament, organised by the Bangladesh Cricket Board to provide the national players some T20 practice ahead of the ICC World Twenty20 next year, had a number of highlights, most noticeable among them being the grand response that the competition received in Sylhet.

The national team has been struggling to find an opening partner for Tamim and fortunately for the selectors a number of openers performed well in the competition. Prime Bank's Anamul Haque, with 325 runs and 13 dismissals as wicketkeeper, was adjudged the man of the tournament. Jahurul Islam of Mohammedan too hit form - his whirlwind 31-ball 80 against UCB-BCB XI will surely have roused the selectors' interest.

Amongst the uncapped players it was Sabbir Rahman who made the best impression. His 293 runs in the tournament came almost at an average of 50 and he was a livewire in Shakib's side. Among the bowlers it was Al Amin Hossain from BCB XI with 16 wickets - including four wickets in four balls against Abahani - who seemed to trouble the batsmen most on pitches that had very little on offer for the bowlers.

He performed in the finals as well, finishing with figures of 3 for 31. However, despite his good spell, Prime Bank managed to put on a decent 174 for 6 after electing to bat first.

Prime Bank were boosted by Liton Kumar's first-half century of the tournament Liton hit two sixes and six fours in his 39-ball 62 and was the mainstay of the first innings. While Liton did not follow an overtly aggressive method he did find the gaps with precision. He used his feet cleverly against the spinners and drove the pacers through the gaps.

The rest of the batting order however failed to take Liton's cue and wasted good starts.

In reply, BCB Xi’s chase began on a rough

note as they lost their skipper and key batsman Tamim in the second over of the innings. Tamim came down the track to Shohag Gazi but played a defensive shot, and the ball seemed to hit the pad and go back to the bowler who took a low catch, after which the umpire sent Tamim on his way. The lefthander was visibly unhappy with the decision and took some time to walk back to the gallery. He later stated that the ball was nowhere near his bat. He was fined Tk 10,000 by the match referee for breaching the code of conduct.

Rony Talukdar (32 off 24) seemed in good touch and played a few good-looking drives against Shakib and Gazi. He hit one six and four fours but failed to carry on and was caught at mid off in the seventh over. They lost regular wickets after that and halfway through the innings were struggling at 76 for 5. The hard-hitting Muktar Ali, the team's last hope, came in at number seven only to be sent back by a brilliant diving catch at the edge of the long off boundary by Rubel Hossain in the 15th over. Faced with a ballooning asking rate, the chase then fizzled