Twitter Reactions: Daryl Mitchell, Tom Blundell headline New Zealand's dominance on Day 1

England bowlers endured a hard time on Day 1 of the second Test.

By Karthik Nair

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Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell
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Daryl Mitchell and Tom Blundell (Photo Source: Twitter/Blackcaps)

England bowlers and fielders were literally made to toil hard by the New Zealand batters on Day 1 of the all-important second Test match at Trent Bridge, Nottingham. The third and final session, especially the last few hours of the play, completely belonged to the visitors as they showed some great resistance by not only scoring big runs but also keeping the English bowlers at bay.

The coin landed in the favour of the home skipper Ben Stokes who immediately decided to bowl first in order to take full advantage of what looked like a typical bowling surface. Moreover, the Kiwis suffered a major setback as regular skipper Kane Williamson was ruled out of the contest due to Covid-19 and Tom Latham took over as the stand-in captain.

New Zealand show great resistance on the opening day

After suffering a five-wicket defeat at the iconic Lord’s Cricket Ground last week, the pressure was on New Zealand to showcase an improved performance with the series on the line and they did live up to the expectations right from the word go. The opening duo of Latham and Will Young added 84 runs for the first wicket before both were dismissed in quick succession for 26 and 47 respectively.

Just when it appeared that the quick jolts would open up the floodgates for the hosts, Devon Conway (46) and Henry Nicholls (30) carried out the rescue act by stitching a 77-run stand for the third wicket before both of them were sent back to the pavilion. The Black Caps, who had suffered awkward middle-order collapses in both innings of the Lord’s Test match, found themselves in a spot of bother yet again, but history did not repeat itself as Daryl Mitchell and wicketkeeper-batter Tom Blundell completely negated the advantage created by the English bowlers and played sensibly.

The two kept the scoreboard ticking and ensured that no further damage was done as New Zealand went to stumps at 318/4. Mitchell remained unbeaten on 81 while Blundell walked back not out on 67. For England, veteran pacer James Anderson and captain Ben Stokes shared two scalps each.

Here are the Twitter Reactions to New Zealand’s remarkable fightback.

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