NORTH U15 WINS SECOND STRAIGHT MATCH, AND MOVES INTO THE SEMIFINALS
Kaiden Pollard’s all-round performance and Brandon Ramdoo’s penetrative opening spell propelled North Zone to a seven-wicket victory over North East in the Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) U15 Interzone Youth Tournament on Thursday at Santa Cruz.
Pollard notched an unbeaten half-century in a chase of 139 and took two wickets, while Ramdoo decimated the North East top-order with three wickets to pave the way to victory.
Larell Guiseppi also captured two wickets, while Elijah Ashton and Abdiel Boland were among the runs for the victorious North team.
North have now beaten East and North East and host Tobago on 12 February in their final preliminary round match, with a foot firmly in the tournament’s semifinals.
North U15 coach Earnil Ryan was happy with the win but saw room for improvement.
“The game was very interesting. It was a really nice competitive game for both sides. They both showed a bit of character,” the former national player said.
“The North East team had a nice bowling unit. I would have liked to see how they would have gone about it if they had more runs,” Ryan added.
At the Brian Lara Recreation Ground, North went without opening batter Levi Burke and bowler Alex Nicholas, with off-spinner Kemuel Yard and leg-spinner Avinash Boodram rotated into the line-up.
“As much as you want to win the competition, you want to give everybody an opportunity to play because the development of the young players is the most important factor,” Ryan said.
North started well with Ramdoo cranking up the pace early, with his opening spell dooming North East to a modest start of 31 for 4 after nine overs.
The North right-arm medium-pacer batted R. Lutchmansingh’s stumps (5) before getting an edge of Z. Stewart’s bat, which Pollard held with a superb grab at slip.
Ramdoo ended R. Harriram’s resistance which lasted 27 balls for 11 before Ashton ran out J. Mohammed (2) off the last ball of the ninth over.
The wickets continued to tumble with off-spinner Davis Guerra removing Z. Ali (6) before Pollard struck with two wickets in two balls.
The off-spinner held a return catch off E Fuentes (14) before splattering G. Guisseppi’s stumps first ball to leave North East at 67 for 7.
However, North East battled back with M. Richards (28) adding 57 valuable runs with D. Chaitram for the eighth wicket.
The introduction of Larell Guiseppi ended Richards’ knock and that of A. Rampartap (2) as the North East innings fell apart at the end.
The off-spin of Yard accounted for Chaitram for a battling 32 as North East fell for 138 in the 50th over with five balls unused.
North coach Ryan was enthused by the bowling of Ramdoo, who ended with 3 for 27.
“I think this was by far his best spell of fast bowling. He bowled fast. Young men were running from him. He was getting the ball to climb over the keeper at good pace. He looked exceptional. He came out and put in a display there,” Ryan said.
However, Ryan was less than pleased with his team producing 30 wides in a total of 35 extras.
“The team bowled well generally. However, I think our boys were not accurate for a long period of the game. I could never be pleased with that. When you look at the score 30 wides is not good enough for that level. If we were a bit more accurate, the score would have reflected that,” he said.
“On top of that, we dropped about four to five catches and that would have changed the complexion of the score as well. Not that the North East players did not do a good job of picking up the singles and hitting the boundaries. Our fielding and bowling were not on point as we should be,” Ryan.
“If I had to sum it up in one word, I think we would have been just above average.”
North had a less-than-ideal start, losing Jean-Paul Barrimond (3) early. The youngster was thrust into the opening spot, with regular opener Burke out of the match.
However, Boland and skipper Pollard turned the match decisively towards North with a 37-run stand off 68 balls.
Pollard then played second fiddle to Ashton, who struck 22 in a 53-run third-wicket partnership to pave the road to victory.
Ashton departed with 29 runs still needed, but Pollard and Davis spared their team further anxiety with an unbroken run-a-ball stand to win the game.
Pollard (51*), the son of former West Indies star Keiron Pollard, faced 74 balls and struck three fours and a brace of sixes, the only maximums of the game.
Guerra was not out on 5 off 12 balls.
“We definitely had a good start from young Boland as well as good support from young Ashton. They played an integral role in supporting the captain with his knock of 51 not out. The batting was a big improvement,” coach Ryan said on his team’s batting.
He praised Pollard’s batting and commented on his fine catch early in the game.
“He actually had a magnificent catch at slip off the opening bowler. Brilliant, brilliant, it was really top-class. He had an excellent knock with his fair share of boundary-hitting. He looked really mature,” Ryan said.
“I’ve been working with him for a while, trying to get in his mind a bit more because the ability is definitely there. It is just to do some more mental work and get self-belief. He needs to put a lot less stress and strain on himself and enjoy the game more, and the results will tell their own story,” he said.
Ryan said that young Kaiden Pollard is still finding his way out of the shadow of his cricket legend father and he needs to enjoy his cricket.
“I had a chat with his father. He told him (Kaiden) to forget that he was there and play the game. You play the game not to be a superstar, you play the game because you love it. When you do that, you give justice to the game and the game will pay you back with results and success. That is one of his biggest challenges, to allow himself to enjoy the game more,” Ryan said.
North is back in action on 12 February against Tobago at the Brian Lara Recreation Ground in Santa Cruz with the opportunity to top Group A on their horizon.
North made light work of Tobago at Shaw Park in 2024 and while Ryan said his team will not be taking them lightly, he hinted that some changes would be made to his team ahead of the Tobago clash.
“Every team is as good as their last performance. In addition, a team is only as good as they performed on the day. It could be their day on Wednesday, so we definitely have to do what we need to do so that does not happen.
“I would have loved to give a couple of guys a rest because of injury at the same time, remember that if players perform well enough they can be called up to represent the country as well. So we need to give the performing players the chance to keep performing,” he added.
The winner of Group A will play the runner-up in Group B on 19 February in the first semifinal at the National Cricket Center in Balmain, Couva.
The runner-up in Group A will battle the winners of Group B in the second semifinal on the same day at a venue to be decided.
The final of the TTCB U15 Interzone Youth Tournament is carded for 26 February at Balmain.
Summarized scores: North East 138 all out in 49.1 overs (D Chaitram 32, M Richards 28; Brandon Ramdoo 3/27, Kaiden Pollard 2/20, Larell Guiseppi 2/24) vs North 139 for 3 in 31.3 overs (Kaiden Pollard 51 not out, Elijah Ashton 22, Abadiel Boland 21; D Chaitram 1/11, M Richards 1/11). North won by seven wickets.
