By Anthony Foster, Freelance Writer 
RAMPAUL record 45 wickets.
IN A tense and exciting West Indies Under-19 championships cricket final, Barbados beat Trinidad & Tobago by one wicket to capture the 2002 title at Sabina Park yesterday.
Final scores: Trinidad & Tobago 147 and 139; Barbados 124 and 163 for nine.
Meanwhile, Trinidad & Tobago's fast bowler Ravi Rampaul, the bowling star of the 2002 tournament, took 45 wickets to overhaul country man Rajendra Dhanraj's 15-year-old record of 44 wickets.
The 17-year-old entered the match with 36 wickets, and had a match-haul of nine for 55.
In a long day's play during which the fortune switched one way then the next it was Trinidad & Tobago who looked in the driver's seat in the early action. Resuming at 84 for eight with Amit Jaggernauth (27) and Rampaul (zero) at the wicket they added another 54 runs for the ninth wicket. Jaggernauth went on to make 42 while Rampaul was left not out on 21.
Ruel Brathwaite 4-25 off 16 overs and fast bowler Corey Edwards 3-41 were the pick of the Barbados bowlers.
Needing to get 163 for victory in just over two sessions Barbados got to 33 before they lost Renaldo Parris (six), caught behind by Dinesh Ramdin off Jaggernauth.
At that stage, Barbados suffered a middle order collapse with Rampaul removing Kirk Gibson (five), Kirk Edwards (one) and skipper Kenroy Williams (two) at 61 for four.
Opener batsman Martin Nurse and Ryan Wiggins settled the innings to post a 48-run fifth wicket stand. However, when Nurse went caught at mid-wicket by Satish Naidoo who earlier dropped him on 38, Barbados' middle order crumbled again.
Jamal Smith (seven), Derick Bishop (one), Corey Edwards (six) and Jason Smith (zero) were all back in the pavilion at 147 for nine.
With nine wickets down and Rampaul on the rampage Wiggins and last man Brathwaite kept their heads. Despite some confident appeals, Wiggins (50, 4x4) and Brathwaite (four) made sure their team came away with the 2002 title.
Winning coach Roderick Estwick said they believed in themselves and knew if they kept fighting Barbados would be victorious.
"Thanks to Wiggins, he really guided the tail in a beautiful innings, in which he showed a lot of maturity and a lot of discipline," Estwick added.
Trinidad & Tobago's coach Anthony Gray said the was disappointed with the outcome of the match.
"I wanted to win this tournament, we worked very hard back home in Trinidad preparing for this tournament. However I thought that generally the players put out 150%, but this is reality and players must learn from times of disappointments," Gray said.
