Mumbai loves cricket.

A major share of this city’s population that worships the game, and the players, even more, is in its teenage. These school-going kids go to the maidans of Mumbai, carrying kit bags bigger than their frames with aspirations bigger than their bags, all of this for the love of cricket.

It is for these youngsters, and to continue the love story of Mumbai and its maidans, Mumbai Indians organized a city-wide Inter-School Cricket Tournament – MI Junior. The tournament was an avenue for schools and its players to get out of the four walls of a classroom, showcase their abilities on the 22-yard pitch.

MI Junior, a tournament for U-14 Boys and U-16 Girls, saw schools from the length and breadth of the city turn out in big numbers. Starting from February 27, MI Junior spanned the better part of a month. After three weeks of cricketing action on the many maidans in Mumbai, like Azad Maidan, Oval Maidan and Cross Maidan, the tournament has now reached its ultimate stage – the Finale.

U-16 Girls:

This category comprised of eight teams that gave it their all to advance further in the competition. The teams were divided in two groups of four that witnessed some enthralling cricket to bag the two coveted spots in the final. After a spell of interesting ties and dominating displays, the two schools making it to the final are Shardashram Vidya Mandir and Thane’s Singhania School.

The road to the final for both teams witnessed impressive performances in the batting and bowling departments. It comes as no surprise that the top two run-scorers are from the two finalist teams. Singhania School’s Swarali Bhuyar with 75 runs in her bag and Shardashram’s Tanisha Gaikwad with 74 runs to her credit will be pivotal in their school’s bid to become champions. The girls final will be played on Sunday, March 17.

U-14 Boys:

The category consisted of 64 participating teams that were put through a series of knock-out rounds, followed by the top eight team being divided in two groups to play league format. Over the course of three weeks, young boys from various schools have put up some remarkable performances, as made evident by the numbers. In the 68 matches played so far, the kids have racked up 18,620 runs and 991 wickets.

Rizvi Springfield High School and Swami Vivekanand International will be playing the final match to grab the top prize on March 18. Rizvi will be banking on Abhinav Singh, who had stacked up 265 runs in one match, while Swami Vivekanand will hope their hope their ace bowler Aadesh Rane adds to his ten wickets in the tournament.

The tournament may be concluding on March 18, but the cricketing journey of these juniors will only have begun.