North Zone dethroned champions South to claim a place in the 2025 Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) U15 Interzone Youth Tournament with a battling 10-run victory in the semifinals on Wednesday at Balmain, Couva.
Kaiden Pollard continued his superb form, scoring another half-century in a century stand with Davis Guerra to push North to a challenging 255 for 7.
The North captain then claimed three wickets, with Guerra and Alex Nicholas sharing five more scalps to edge a determined South outfit in a pulsating contest at the National Cricket Center.
North Zone will now play South East Zone in the finals on 26 February at Balmain, for the chance of winning their first national U15 title in almost two decades.
North Zone U15 coach Earnil Ryan said his team was pumped for the game and was eager to make it to the final after falling short in the last two seasons.
“Pollard was definitely the game-changer for me. The way he batted, the way he bowled, the way he fielded, the way he captained the team—it was totally great,” the former T&T all-rounder said.
“This team has been together for a couple of seasons now. They know each other well. I think they wanted to make amends for what they would have done a couple seasons ago,” Ryan added.
Pollard won the toss and decided to bat first, a decision he may have regretted briefly as opener Levi Garcia (0) fell five balls into the opening over.
However, the North skipper and Davis Guerra, elevated in the batting order to open the innings, produced a stand of 101 for the second wicket.
Guerra, whose form with the bat has been patchy so far, came good with 44 off 47 balls with five fours and two sixes.
Ryan said he put Guerra in to open the innings after the Fatima College student had shown form with the bat during a warm-up match against East U15 on the weekend.
“That was one of the propellors for young Davis in getting his confidence back and added to that, I think the confidence I put into him by asking him to open the innings as well. I think he needed that,” he said.
Pollard, who was on 47 when Guerra departed, added a further 39 with Elijah Ashton before he went for 73 with North on 145 for 3.
The North Skipper, who has 259 runs in his last three innings, was elevated to number three by coach Ryan after the season opener.
Pollard’s innings contained 10 fours and two sixes, over 64 balls at a strike rate of 114.06.
“I think you as a coach need to place confidence in your young players, and it gives them belief in their talent. They are a really, really good bunch of talented young men. You just have to support them and give them that encouragement,” Ryan said.
Ashton carried on his anchor role admirably before he went for 28 off 70 balls, providing solid support for a rejuvenated Jean-Paul Barrimond, who held together the innings for North till the end.
After 38 with Ashton, Barrimond accumulated another 28 with Larell Guiseppi (11), before an unbroken 44-run partnership with Dylan Lee Chow (14*) pushed North to 255 for 7 in their 50 overs.
Barrimond, a 12-year-old Fatima College student, also came in for praise from his coach.
“I think (Barrimond) was owing the team some runs. He was not performing during the tournament but, again, he was dropped against Tobago. He got some runs in the practice match and I thought he deserved a place in the team. He went out there and played a very mature and responsible innings,” said Ryan.
If there were any thoughts that the defending champions would capitulate, they were quickly dispelled by a brilliant opening partnership of 80 from South.
Rahul Soogrim batted like a man on a mission, striking six fours and four sixes in getting to 52 off 39 balls in only 48 minutes.
With fellow opener Bradly Jaggernauth giving good support, North had to find answers quickly.
“The plan was to get through the Powerplay. I knew they would come very hard and try to capitalize on that as much as possible. We needed to be very disciplined with our bowling. I think we let it go a little bit after the first four or five overs. (Rahul Soogrim) batted like a champ. He was really getting the job done.,” said Ryan.
North’s go-to bowler, Alex Nicholas, did the trick, bowling Soogrim for 52 to stem the tide.
Pollard then turned to spin, bowling himself and Davis, a partnership that started to tilt the axis of the game back towards the North team.
Spin did the trick with South restricted to only seven runs in 22 balls before Pollard struck.
He had number three batsman Veer Arjoon caught behind for 3, before smashing a delivery into Bradley Jaggernauth’s (32) stumps.
The loss of Jaggernath signaled a steep slide for South with four wickets falling for only 17 runs.
Guerra got into the act, getting Ethan Ramcharan (18) to offer a change to Pollard, before the North captain rattled the stumps again, bowling Tristan Cambridge for 6.
Guerra then claimed his second wicket, Ayden Ramtahal, caught by Ashton without scoring.
South was tottering at 117 for 6, but North’s victory charge was held off by a counteroffensive from Samuel Stewart and Kaydon Manohar.
The pair added 63 controlled runs off the next 81 balls to restore South’s hopes of retaining their title.
With the tension mounting, the running between the wickets became more urgent, and more chances were taken, with catastrophic consequences.
Stewart, on 41, was run out by Lee Chow, before Pollard found Kaydon Manohar (15) short of his ground.
South, now needing only 55 for victory with only two wickets left, started another miraculous comeback.
Number nine Bradley Jaimungal and number 10 Luke Ramlal inched the champions to within 21 of victory with a run-a-ball stand of 34 for the ninth wicket.
Jaimungal then became the third runout victim as Nicholas swooped in to send him back for 23.
Nicholas then found the perfect delivery to Ramlal, which he edged to Lee Chow and sealed his team’s victory by 10 runs.
“Alex has been bowling well. Generally, he is my go-to bowler in the seam department where getting wickets is concerned. He is not as quick as the rest but he is a very intelligent young bowler. You can’t keep him out of the game at all,” said Ryan.
North was back in the final and with a chance to add an elusive U15 title to their trophy cabinet.
Standing in their way is the South-East team, which got past East to make it to the final.
“Judging from how East bowled to them, I think we have a very good chance of getting them out for under 200. What we need to do is bat as well as we did in the semifinal,” said Ryan.
“The batsmen definitely have to carry the weight now. We definitely have some form. Now is where it counts. We may go with the extra batter or so. The guys are extremely happy to be in a final and to win would be more than anybody could ask for right now,” he added.
The 2025 Trinidad and Tobago Cricket Board (TTCB) U15 Interzone Youth Tournament final will take place on 26 February at the National Cricket Center in Balmain, Couva.
Summarized scores: North Zone 255 for 7 in 50 overs (Kaiden Pollard 73, Davis Guerra 44, Jean-Paul Barrimond 41*, Elijah Ashton 28; Ayden Ramtahal 2/64, Veer Arjoon 1/12, Luke Ramlal 1/38, Ethan Ramcharan 1/40, Samel Stewart 1/54) vs. South 245 in 48.5 overs (Rahul Sookram 52, Samuel Stewart 41, Bradley Jaggernauth, Bradley Jaimungal 23, Luke Ramlal 21; Kaiden Pollard, 3/31, Davis Guerra 2/22, Alex Nicholas 2/47). North won by 10 runs.
North: Levi Burke, Davis Gerra, Kaiden Pollard, Elijah Ashton, Jean-Paul Barrimond, Larell Guiseppi, Ayden Antoine, Alex Nicholas, Dylan Lee Chow, Brandon Ramdoo, Kemuel Yard
South: Bradley Jaggernath, Rahul Sookram, Veer Arjoon, Ethan Ramcharan, Tristan Cambridge, Ayden Ramtahal, Kaydon Manohar, Samuel Stewart, Bradley Jaimungal, Luke Ramlal, Varin Gosine
FINAL: North vs South-East on 26 February at National Cricket Center in Balmain from 9:30 a.m.
