Watch: West Indies batter Kavem Hodge copped a painful blow to the groin against New Zealand on Saturday (December 20).
Watch: Kavem Hodge takes painful blow to the groin
Batting on 97 in West Indies' first innings at Mount Maunganui, Hodge faced up to the first delivery of pacer Michael Rae's over, the 105th of the innings. Rae got the ball to angle back in to Hodge, and the batter was beaten as it struck him in the groin.
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Hodge went down immediately, letting out a heart-wrenching cry of "Oh my god!" (little will prepare you for the sheer angst in his voice). For a couple of seconds, he rolled around on the floor, groaning as he attempted to regain his breath after being winded. The West Indies team physio came out to attend to him, but in end only remained a spectator as Hodge stood back up on his own and began to walk.
The next delivery, he knocked Rae into the leg side for two, moving to 99. A pull for four off the following ball brought up his second Test century off 224 balls.
Hodge hundred highlights Windies' batting effort
Hodge's resolute effort was the standout in the Test match so far for the West Indies. On day one (December 18), the visitors were made to bowl first and were almost bystanders as Devon Conway and Tom Latham put on a 323-run opening stand, the highest first-wicket partnership in WTC history.
New Zealand eventually declared on 575-8 yesterday (day two), before John Campbell and Brandon King took their side to 110-0 by stumps. West Indies are a batter down at the moment with Shai Hope unavailable due to injury, but there were contributions right down the order as the top six all made it past 25, the first such occurrence for the West Indies in Test cricket since 2011.
Hodge was unbeaten on 109 at stumps on day three, with Anderson Phillip (12*) for company. At 381-6, the visitors still trail by 194 runs. The pitch, however, has shown little sign of spicing up.
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