Kiwi pair show Stokes’ men way to scrap for runs

Visiting batsmen display a strength of character that England lacked at the crease to change game’s momentum

It is all about character. Twenty20 is all glitz and hits, but Test cricket boils down to character. And on the first two days of this series, England have been weighed in the balance and found wanting yet again, having followed their 204 and 120 in Grenada with 141.

So it was that after 54 overs of New Zealand’s second innings, the visitors were well on top, Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell going strong, and it was time for England to show some character: the cue for their new captain, Ben Stokes, to take the ball and the Pavilion End.

Hitherto, Stokes had been very much the conventional England Test captain on the field. At mid-off, smartly groomed, he looked rather like PBH May of Charterhouse and Cambridge, and had scarcely bowled more: just the four overs thus far, under-bowled not overbowled as some had feared.

Stokes charged in and gave it everything as the point of difference in England’s attack.

His veteran opening bowlers have never been Bouncing Billies; Matt Potts homes in on fourth stump and a good length.

So, in addition to all his other duties, Stokes has to dish out the bouncers with all the extra energy that entails.

Every ball for two overs was short as Stokes bowled “Bodyline” to a 3-6 field. Mitchell and Blundell took him on and hooked their singles downwards to the three men out deep. For two more overs Stokes then varied his attack: he did not go to the absurd extremes to which England went in their last Test against India at Lord’s, when Joe Root ordered bouncers every ball at Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah, whereupon England promptly disintegrated in every department. Nothing, however, could disturb the character of New Zealand’s fifth-wicket pair.

Neither is a name, a star, let alone “an icon”. They are both aged 31; both had hit 10 first-class hundreds before this game, no more; Blundell is in his 18th Test, Mitchell only his 10th. They are just a couple of Kiwi cricketers who know how to scrap, how to recognise the pivotal moment and seize it by force of character: they were self-disciplined in their shot selection, not self-indulgent, as England had been in their first innings.

Mitchell grew up in Hamilton and made his Test debut there against England in 2019. He was a mediumpaced all-rounder, but has spotted a vacancy after Ross Taylor’s retirement; he had also spotted a vacancy at the top of New Zealand’s T20 lineup and in that role had knocked England out in the last World Cup semi-final.

In the years when New Zealand lagged far behind Australia, it might have been significant that Mitchell was schooled in Perth – when his father was a rugby coach there – and represented Western Australia Under-19s and Under-23s.

Until a generation ago, Kiwis had to go abroad to complete their education, in cricket or other spheres, but no longer.

Blundell exhibited the same strength of character in turning this Test the tourists’ way.

Has an England wicketkeeper suddenly stepped up to open the batting in a Melbourne Test and scored a hundred?

Well, yes, Alec Stewart did so in 1998-99, when he exercised his captain’s prerogative to give up his gloves and concentrate on his batting, but he was well versed at opening. When Blundell hit his hundred at Melbourne, he was a keeper and middle-order bat slotted in to open in his third Test.

That is character. Together, Mitchell and Blundell did the hard yards through to the close without any need of luck, without self-indulgence.

James Anderson and Stuart Broad, while accurate as always, lost their bite as the ball aged, and they will welcome a second on day three.

Potts persevered after his beginner’s luck ran out; Stokes steamed in; Matt Parkinson came so slowly off the pitch that Mitchell and Blundell had time to adjust, playing back.

Provided the ball does not keep low, England could chase down a sizeable target, but they missed the boat in their first innings.

It will need either a major innings by Stokes to win this game – and he did hit 17 sixes in his first county knock after being appointed Test captain – or a collective display of character.