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‘Top order, fielding let us down’ says Griffith
High in praise for Bajan pitches
By Sean Devers in Barbados
In Association with Bounty Supermarket, Vnet Communications,
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The biggest disappointment for Rayon Griffith, Assistant Coach and Manager of the Guyana 
Jaguars, who failed to reach the semi finals of the this year’s Regional Super50 tournament, was the poor fielding and lack of big opening partnerships from his team.
The 38 year-old Griffith, also the Chairman of the Guyana selection panel and Assistant Coach of the West Indies ‘A’ team which toured Sri Lanka last year, was high in praise for the quality of the pitches in Barbados, especially the ones at the Kensington Oval.
“The biggest disappointment for me was in the fielding department. If we had caught better we would have been in the semi-finals. Also the top order struggled to give us good starts, so I would say those two areas were the main reason we did not qualify,” said Griffith, who still plays for GNIC in local cricket.
This is the first time since 2013 that Guyana, without a Regional 50-over title in 12 years, has not made it to the ‘final four’ in this format. The Jaguars lost twice to Barbados and Jamaica but registered two victories each against ICC
Chairman of selectors Rayon Griffith and Skipper Leon Johnson. (Photos by Sean Devers)
Americas and CCC to finish in third place on 18 points. The two top teams qualified for the semis which start on Wednesday in Antigua.
The Jaguars used Assad Fudadin to open with both Shemron Hetymer and Rajendra Chandrika and only twice did the opening pair post anything substantial.
Fudadin and Chandrika put together 58 against Barbados in a losing cause, while Fudadin and Hetymer added a record 142 in a meaningless last round game against ICC Americas to better the 131 between Sewnarine Chattergoon and Krishna Arjune against Trinidad & Tobago in Barbados in 2005.
Griffith, a former Guyana pacer who took 56 wickets in 22 First-Class matches between 1999 and 2007, was impressed by the pitches.
“I think the standard in this zone was not that bad and the wickets (pitches) were much better than in Trinidad. What I liked most about this zone were the wickets which provided much better scores. Teams got 200 and 250 totals and the other teams got close. So it could help your batter more than wickets that are up and down,” Griffith said.
“I am most pleased with young Hetymer’s 94 against ICC Americas and that was a positive. I think Shivnarine Chanderpaul still has something left in him and his experience has helped the team,” the Manager added.
The 42-year-old Chanderpaul was the only Jaguars batsman to score a century. He made 101
Hetymer and Fudadin shared in record opening stand in their last game but top order struggled throughout the tournament.
from 96 balls with 12 fours and a six in a losing effort against Jamaica and passed Floyd Reifer’s 2,878 runs to become the batsman with the most runs in Regional one-day cricket.
“Some of the batters in the middle played their part. I spoke about Shiv but Leon Johnson was very consistent and batted very well and he is a very good captain too. But we lacked batters who could go on and give us big totals and I think the extra bounce here unsettled the batsmen. The bowlers also bowled too many bad balls,” Griffith opined.
“Raymon (Reifer) had a very decent tournament with both bat and ball. When he bowled with the new ball his execution was good and when he came back at the death he bowled a lot of slower balls and yorkers. He also batted very well and scored two fifties when he was promoted to bat at three. He enjoyed a very good tournament,” Griffith disclosed.
Hetymer blasted a pugnacious 94 in the last mach from just 76 balls with 10 fours and fours sixes before throwing his wicket away when six short of a maiden ton and Griffith said that shot selection has been Hetymer’s only flaw and would be addressed.
“He did it in Sri Lanka (with West Indies ‘A’ team) when he was really batting well and he has also done it for Guyana and again here. He was in no position to play that shot but he is still young and hot blooded and as he matures as a batsman I am sure he will be more responsible in picking which balls to hit. We will work with him on that,” concluded Griffith.
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