Why Christmas Feels Different for Many Bajans This Year

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 Manganui’s been screening one for the past three days and just as the draw was starting to turn favourite, things started to happen. “Ooooh my Goooddddd,” cried Kavem Hodge rolling around on the floor. Apparently, he was only allowed a second Test match century if he could show he could 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 is for losers and whacked a pull shot to the square-leg boundary.

West Indies went to stumps on 381 for 6, and trailing by 194, but there is uncertainty around two of the wickets they have in hand. Shai Hope was holed up in his hotel all of Friday and he hasn’t 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 starting to look serious enough to prevent him from batting. Kemar Roach is down with a hamstring injury he picked up on the first day and his status is unclear as well.

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. So there was a lot of oohs and aahs but never the aha! Until Daryl Mitchell was given the ball and he just trundled in and trapped Justin Greaves lbw. Three balls later, Ajaz Patel had Roston Chase trapped 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’d 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 ’em.

Hodge batting in the 90s started to get uncomfortable. Anderson Phillip got hit in 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!”, throwing back to the missed opportunity when they had no reviews in Christchurch and Roach lbw only for the umpire to shake his head. There’s still two more days of this left.

Hodge’s Test career has been a slow burn too and at one point was in danger of being put out. He had been dropped during the home summer with only two of his previous 15 innings crossing the 30-run mark. Speaking at the end of the day’s play, he had the grace to accept that, saying if the employees aren’t giving what is expected of them, bosses will look elsewhere.

West Indies came back to him for this tour of New Zealand and he made it a priority to figure out a way to bat against the moving ball. This challenge, far from making him shrink, triggered the analytical side of him. He has a degree in sports science and those principles might have come in handy to recognise that he could leverage his strength, scoring square of the wicket, into runs, “Plan your work, work your plan,” he said at the end of the day on 109 not out.

Hodge looked suspect initially, surviving outside edges through the slip cordon and berating himself about his front foot’s reluctance to get in line with the ball. But none of that deterred him from doing the basics right; from being ready for the next ball; from gaining better awareness of his off stump. With more and more time in the middle, he was able to get his body moving the way he wanted. The strength of his defence began to shine through – soft hands, bat face pointed down to make sure the ball didn’t reach the close catchers – and the bowlers began looking elsewhere. Hodge punished them for their lack of perseverance, playing some of the most crisp pull shots.

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