Local Hero

What will it take for a wicket keeper to be rewarded with a Man of the Match award?

When Ollie Pope faced his second ball early this morning he charged the bowler before deciding to let it pass through to the keeper.  This summed up England’s semi-adherence to Bazball today when put under pressure.

From then on that keeper stood up to the stumps when the quick bowlers were in action, and it clearly rattled Pope.  He never looked comfortable at all, and would often turn around to look at Blundell.  His departure after a really scratchy 12 came as no surprise to anyone, and his rattled, uncomfortable knock came to a quick end.

Following that came one of the key moments in the day.  Player of the Series Harry Brook was run out without facing a ball.  While that was due to some quick thinking from the much maligned Michael Bracewell, if there was no keeper standing next to the stumps there was no run out, and the day might have played out very differently.

He continued to stand up to Root throughout, and while Root till prospered, there was always the feeling that he would have prospered more had Blundell not been there.  Whether or not that pressure caused Root to have a rush of blood to the head that led to his downfall is unclear, but it was probably a factor.

And so to the final ball of the match.  In reality it was a bit of leg side filth from Wagner bowling over the wicket to a left hander, but Blundell still managed to cover a fair bit of ground to take a great catch.  He played a massive hand today.

As it happened Williamson scored 136 runs in this test compared to Blundell’s 128.  That’s a slim margin when you factor in Blundell’s contribution today.

 

One test debut Blundell famously walked home in his whites to his flat in Mt Victoria after a day’s play.  Today he got to order the limo to take him and the bowlers to the top of that mountain.  There must be a metaphor in there.

 

Time for some music