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Tuesday March 12, 2019
Kaieteur News
No shame despite T20 whitewash: Holder BASSETERRE, St Kitts, CMC – Skipper Jason Holder says while West Indies’ batting was a huge disappointment in the Twenty20 series, it could not overshadow the massive strides made by the Caribbean side during the overall tour against England. West Indies crumbled for record lows in the two final T20 Internationals here at Warner Park to suffer comprehensive defeats, and ultimately, a 3-0 series
whitewash. But with the Windies – written off by pundits before the tour – stunning England 2-1 in the three-Test series to regain the Wisden Trophy, and coming from behind in the one-day series to earn a 2-2 draw in the five-match rubber against the world number one side, Holder said there was little reason for his side to be ashamed. “The Test series was exceptional, the ODI series was equally as good,” Holder
told reporters following the final T20 here Sunday. “We arguably let ourselves down in the ODI series but England still played some very good cricket as well, and the T20 series just wasn’t ours to be fair – we were outplayed – but overall I’m pretty pleased,” He continued: “We just weren’t good enough [in the T20 series]. We didn’t adjust to the wicket – I felt it was a bit two-paced – and I felt England bowled a really hard
length and asked us to hit them off their lengths and we just didn’t adjust to what the wicket threw at us and we didn’t really play well. “I still feel the batsmen are fairly confident. We didn’t play the surface as well as we would’ve liked but I’m not too disheartened by the performance. Obviously we’re disappointed to be rolled over on home court in two games but overall the guys had a pretty good ODI leg of the series and there’s a
lot to build on.” West Indies lost the opening T20 in St Lucia by four wickets but batting meltdowns here ensured the series was a virtual nocontest. In last Friday’s second match, they were dismissed for 45 – the second lowest total in T20s – to lose by 137 runs. On Sunday, they were rolled over for 71 – their third lowest T20 total – as England strolled to a comfortable eight-wicket win. Holder said while the Windies had prepared and executed well in the ODIs, they failed to make the adjustment to the shortest format – especially after
opting to retain the one-day squad for the T20s in order to further their World Cup preparations. “We probably just didn’t adjust to the T20 format – we had our plans pretty much nailed down for the ODIs and I felt we played a really good ODI series,” the all-rounder pointed out. “There is still a lot of improvement to be had and fielding is obviously one of our key points to really, really touch up on going into England (World Cup) and obviously we need to be a little bit tighter at the top [of the order] to build a few more partnerships and dig a bit deeper up front.”
National Junior Chess Championship
Defending champion Joshua Gopaul loses twice, Jaganandan, Allijohn and Lee share lead Defending national junior champion Joshua Gopaul got an awakening call when he returned to the chessboard last weekend in the opening rounds of the National Junior Chess Championship when he was defeated by Andre Jagnandan and Ethan Lee. In round one, playing with the White Pieces against a Grunfeld Defence, Gopaul missed the simple 5, Bxf6 Bxf6 and 6, Cxd5, winning a simple pawn through the basic tactics of removing the defender. However, the tactical Lee was ruthless when hunting Gopaul’s uncastled king thereby forcing him to resign on move 14. Gopaul’s second game was longer than his first, played with a lot of inaccuracies which the informed Andre was keen to spot. Again, playing with the White Pieces, Gopaul went for the Queen’ s Gambit, however Andre Jaganandan went for the Chameleon Defence using his opponent’s inaccuracies to slowly grind his way to victory. Jaganandan won his first round game against the higher FIDE rated player Jaden Taylor. Taylor with the Black Pieces went for the active and solid Grunfeld Defence but lost his way playing an inferior variation which the inform Jaganandan spotted and capitalised on. Ghansham Allijohn got off to a perfect start as well. In round one he opted for the Scotch Game with White against fellow club mate Jarell
Troyer. After early Queen’s exchanges, Allijohn outplayed his opponent strategically and positioned to secure his first win. Even with the Black Pieces, he maintained his solidness to fend off some aggressive chess by Jaden Taylor as well in round two. Queens College’ Rajiv Lee is also sharing the lead after round 2. In round one against Chelsea Juma, he played the Scotch Game as well. However, inaccuracies by both players saw the initiative being pushed from player to player. However, Juma missed her winning chance on move 14 when she played the defensive 14...c6 instead of the counter attacking 14...d5 which would have blasted the center open for her better developed pieces against the opponent’s uncastled king. This is failing to seize the moment and the initiative for a winning chance in chess. As a result, Juma lost an undefended Knight through a skewer. In round 2, Rajiv Lee fought hard for over 50 moves to secure his second point against the challenging Jaden Taylor. Ethan Lee and Chelsea Juma’s round 2 match up was highly anticipated as well since the two players have almost the same FIDE ratings. Against d4, young Juma went for the tricky and counter aggressive Chigorin Variation of the Queens Gambit Decline. Juma was able through (Continued on page 27)