TITLE IN JEOPARDY

Barbados’ bid to repeat as regional Under-15 champions couldn’t have gotten off to a worse possible start.
The title-holders suffered their second successive defeat in the West Indies Rising Stars Under-15 Championship today when they suffered a four-wicket defeat against the Leeward Islands in a rain-affected contest.
The result follows their shock defeat against Jamaica in the opening round on Tuesday when they went down by 18 runs.
This time around, Barbados was rolled over at Coolidge Cricket Ground for just 129 in 41.4 overs.
They then failed to halt Leewards’ pursuit of a revised target of 78 off 20 overs after rain intervened, to taste another surprising loss under the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method.
Once again it was Barbados’ batting that struggled, with the 34 extras conceded by the Leewards being the highest contributor to their eventual total.
Left-hander Seth Smith top-scored with 23 off 40 deliveries with three fours, as only four other batsmen got into double figures.
The visitors had a horrible start when opening batsman Gadson Bowens, who scored a half-century against Jamaica, was dismissed off the very first ball of the innings, lbw to Jaheem Clarke.
They never really recovered from his loss, with the pair of Damarko Wiggins and Kemar Dixon’s 25-run partnership for the second wicket requiring 11 overs.
Once Wiggins was dismissed, Barbados lost wickets at regular intervals to crumble to 73 for seven in the 37th over.
It was Smith who inspired a crucial 40-run, eighth-wicket partnership with Jakeem Pollard (19) which powered Barbados past the 100-run mark.
Kunal Tilokani led the Leewards attack with four for 17 while Amoree Jones supported with three for 19.
In reply, the hosts had reached 18 for one in the fourth over when rain intervened, causing a lengthy break.
On resumption, Matthew Miller oversaw the revised run chase with an unbeaten 18 from 26 balls, his knock coming on the back of a 25-run, third wicket stand between Lawshorn Bergan (11) and Lythe Browne (12).
Akobi Crichlow-Byer claimed two for 14 from four overs but his spell proved in vain.
Rain also intervened in the other two encounters.
At Liberta Sports Club, unbeaten Trinidad and Tobago trounced Windward Islands by seven wickets in a game reduced to 20 overs per side while in the other game at the Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium, Guyana got the better of Jamaica, also courtesy DLS.
Trinidad and Tobago’s success, meanwhile, was their second on the spin following a similar victory over Guyana on Tuesday.
Brendan Boodoo and Yasir Deen both claimed three for nine to undermine the Windwards for 71 all out in the penultimate over before Boodoo returned to top-score with 21 as T&T cruised to their target with 49 balls to spare.
(RB/CMC)