Hodge hundred keeps West Indies’ fight on

The Grinch made an appearance during the test match (Getty Images)

West Indies 381 for 6 (Hodge 109, King 63, Duffy 2-79) trail New Zealand 575 for 8 dec (Conway 227, Latham 137, Ravindra 72*, Greaves 2-83) by 194 runs.*
Slow-burn thrillers aren’t for everyone. Mount Maunganui has been screening one for the past three days and, just as the draw was starting to look the favourite, things began to happen. “Ooooh my Gooooddddd,” cried Kavem Hodge, rolling around on the floor.
Apparently, he was only allowed a second Test-match century if he could show he was willing to take a cricket ball to the crown jewels. He did. On 97, he put his agonised body through the trauma of a quickly run two and, on 99, decided running was for losers and whacked a pull shot to the square-leg boundary.
West Indies went to stumps on 381 for 6, trailing by 194, but there is uncertainty surrounding two of the wickets they have in hand. Shai Hope was holed up in his hotel for all of Friday and has not really been seen since. It is reported that he is unwell and, as team-mate after team-mate came in ahead of him, it is beginning to look serious enough to prevent him from batting. Kemar Roach is down with a hamstring injury picked up on the first day and his status is also unclear.
New Zealand will remain hopeful of a positive result, particularly on the evidence of how they roused themselves in the final session. They were tired. The slow pace of the pitch was negating the movement that was still on offer. There were plenty of oohs and aahs, but never the aha — until Daryl Mitchell was handed the ball. He trundled in and trapped Justin Greaves lbw. Three balls later, Ajaz Patel had Roston Chase caught in front as well.
West Indies had racked up fifty partnership after fifty partnership — four of their top five wickets were able to bed in. They had proven hard to crack. Then, all of a sudden, a dibbly-dobbly bowler and a man who had never taken a Test wicket at home broke through.
Slow-burn thrillers. Gotta love them.
Hodge batting in the 90s became uncomfortable viewing. Anderson Phillip was struck on the head. New Zealand missed an edge through to the keeper. The replay went up on the big screen and Tom Latham said, “Oh, not again!”, recalling the missed opportunity in Christchurch when New Zealand had no reviews left and Roach was turned down lbw despite appearing plumb. There are still two more days of this to come.
Hodge’s Test career has been a slow burn too and at one point was in danger of being snuffed out. He had been dropped during the home summer, with only two of his previous 15 innings passing the 30-run mark. Speaking at the end of the day’s play, he had the grace to accept that reality, saying that if employees are not delivering what is expected of them, bosses will look elsewhere.
West Indies returned to him for this tour of New Zealand and he made it a priority to find a way to bat against the moving ball. The challenge, far from making him shrink, triggered his analytical side. With a degree in sports science, those principles may have come in handy as he recognised he could leverage his strength — scoring square of the wicket — into runs. “Plan your work, work your plan,” he said at the close, on 109 not out.
Hodge looked suspect early on, surviving outside edges through the slip cordon and berating himself over his front foot’s reluctance to get in line with the ball. But none of that deterred him from doing the basics right: being ready for the next ball; gaining better awareness of his off stump. With more time in the middle, his body began moving the way he wanted it to. The strength of his defence shone through — soft hands, bat face angled down to ensure the ball died before reaching the close catchers — and the bowlers began to look elsewhere. Hodge punished that lack of perseverance, unfurling some crisply struck pull shots.
The early struggle and the method used to escape it made the final yield all the sweeter.
Tevin Imlach, batting at No. 4 in place of Hope, soon after his captain had questioned where he was trying to score his runs, put in a decent shift. It included charging down the pitch to Ajaz and hoisting him straight for six — a direct response to the left-arm spinner nearly running through his defence with an arm ball.
Alick Athanaze was all class. Like Hodge, his room-mate as they came up together in Dominica, he was back-foot dominant. Punches, whips and cuts were all eye-catching, both for the sound off the bat and the balance at the crease.
Greaves spoke on Friday about bringing glory back to West Indies, and it is clearly not beyond him. On one occasion, a mere forward defensive almost carried the ball to the long-off boundary.
Each of those three had the opportunity to go big in largely placid conditions, but all were cut short. Imlach fell for 27, driving at a ball that was not pitched up and could have been left alone. Athanaze left a nothing delivery from Ajaz that would have comfortably missed leg stump but for a cruel deflection off his front pad; he made 45 off 57. Greaves (43 off 69) missed a straight one from Mitchell and needed a review to confirm just how plumb he was. New Zealand’s batters had been ruthless; West Indies’ still had work to do.
Jacob Duffy, the leading wicket-taker of the series, ran in with purpose, whether striking early — as he did when John Campbell fell without adding to his overnight 45 — or doing the donkey work. He cranked his pace up to 144kph in the final over of the day, banging the ball into the pitch in search of variable bounce.
Ajaz, who has not played a Test at home for five years and whose previous 85 wickets had all come away from home, made good use of the wind blowing across the ground, floating the ball in the high-70s to low-80s kph range to generate drift and dip. Michael Rae overcame a laceration to his shin to keep steaming in. Zak Foulkes, a swing bowler on a pitch better suited to those who could hit the deck hard, tried his best.
New Zealand were a much-improved bowling side. Their discipline was strong. They did not let their shoulders slump even as the ball softened and partnerships grew. That mentality will be crucial as the slow burn at Mount Maunganui continues. (ESPNcricinfo)