Stokes stung as first clash of all-round captains goes West Indies' way

In the hour after lunch, the current of the match began to shift. It had been running against England all morning, and they had stumbled to 87 for five. But now Ben Stokes and Jos Buttler were settling in the middle, captain and vice‑captain together, the two senior batsmen in this inexperienced lineup.

Buttler was lashing his bat at everything wide, Stokes was more cautious but still studded his cagey play with the occasional emphatic pull shot whenever the bowling dropped too short. He had reason to be circumspect, since he had already been dropped twice, once at long leg, when he was on 18, then again at short extra-cover, when he had 32.

Related: West Indies have England on ropes after captain Holder leads by example

Jason Holder snapped after that second chance went begging and walked towards the middle of the pitch so he could rally his team. Holder could sense the change in the weather, too, and felt the game just beginning to turn against him. When Buttler hit two fours in three balls from Shannon Gabriel, the partnership rolled up into the 60s. Holder decided it was time to take a grip on it and came back into the attack himself.

So we got to watch the opening blows in a contest that will run all summer, a duel between the two captains in this match: Holder, the world’s top-ranked all-rounder, and Stokes, who is one place behind him.

Before the series, Holder was asked how he felt about their head‑to-head and, while he insisted he didn’t want to be drawn into it – “I don’t like to get into these personal accolades or ICC rankings,” he said – he couldn’t help himself and added: “Ben has always been talked up and quite rightfully so, he’s a really good cricketer, but the rankings say that I’m the No 1-ranked all-rounder and maybe don’t get as much credit as probably I deserve.”

He’s right about that. Holder is one of those odd sportsmen who can somehow remain under‑appreciated even while everyone’s talking about just how much they appreciate them.

It’s because there is a huge gap between the way you expect Holder to bowl and the way he actually does. He is a 6ft 7in man who bowls like he is in late middle‑age, slinging down savvy military medium, making the ball move a little this way and that. It’s resolutely unsexy. And he is so ungainly with it, with an approach something like a galumphing giraffe and a delivery stride that makes him look like he’s slipped on a damp patch. Even in this attack, he is overshadowed by Gabriel’s furious hostility, Kemar Roach’s wicked skill, Alzarri Joseph’s waspish promise. Holder does the boring stuff, and does it brilliantly well.

Stokes had a plan for him. His tactics were the same he had been using against Roach, who is a specialist at bowling around the wicket to the left-handers. The England captain used his feet to come down the pitch and meet length balls on the half-volley; some he hit back past the bowler, others he dropped down into the ground. He had already done it to Holder once, and then tried it again to the next ball. This time, Holder pushed the ball up fuller still, the fullest he had bowled all day. The delivery was coming in at Stokes and he shaped to play it away to leg, then it straightened at the last minute and caught the outside edge of his angled bat. Shane Dowrich took the catch.

Seven balls later, Holder got Buttler, too, caught behind again, this time off a length delivery that nipped away from him. In the space of one short burst, he had broken the back of England’s batting. He had spotted the moment and seized it. Later, he got Jofra Archer and Mark Wood, too, the last of his six wickets for just 42 runs. These are silly figures, the best of his career. But they’re of a piece.

Related: England all out for 204 against West Indies: first Test, day two – live!

Holder is in the thick of one of the game’s great hot streaks. In his last 10 Tests he has taken 55 wickets at 11.8. Over on Test Match Special, their scorer, Andy Zaltzman, dug up the extraordinary fact that it’s the meanest 10-match streak of bowling in Test cricket since Jim Laker and Tony Lock were playing together in the 1950s.

It was Holder’s sixth five-for in those last 10 Tests, it’s run him to fourth place on the list of men who have taken the most five-wicket hauls while they were leading their teams in Test cricket, behind Imran Khan, Richie Benaud and Bishan Bedi.

You guess, though, that Holder might take more quiet satisfaction in another of the stats Zaltzman turned up: this was the 17th time Holder has dismissed the opposition’s captain in a Test. Among those with more than 100 wickets, this is the highest ratio since the 19th century. Stokes, being the player he is, will be keen to get his own back on him.