Ajaz Patel continues his love affair with Mumbai, clinches another 5-wicket haul

New Zealand left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel continued his love affair with the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai as he recorded his second successive five-wicket haul at the venue on Day 2 of the third Test against India. Patel recorded the sixth five-wicket haul of his Test career by dismissing Ravichandran Ashwin in the second session of the day’s play.

As a result, he continued his golden run at the Wankhede Stadium, which has a previous recorded history at the same venue. Patel became the third bowler in the history of the game to drop all ten wickets in a Test innings against India at the same venue in 2021. Notably, all of Patel’s five-wicket hauls came outside New Zealand by two wickets each. Sri Lanka and India, and one each in the UAE and Bangladesh.

IND – NZ 3rd Test Day 2 Live

The left-arm spinner played a supporting role to his teammates, scalping just four wickets in the first two Test matches. However, after returning to his hometown, he brought his ‘A-game’ to the fore. Patel dismissed Yashasvi Jaiswal late on Day 1 when he smashed his stumps for his first scalp in the innings, and also trapped nightwatchman Mohammed Siraj in front of the stumps to dismiss him for a golden duck.

Ajaz Patel’s dream numbers at Wankhede

Day 2 did not have a memorable start as he went after Rishabh Pant in the first session. But after his dismissal, Patel found his mojo back and took the big wicket of Sarfaraz Khan to edge wicketkeeper Tom Blundell for a four-ball duck.

36 year old continued A well-set Shubman dismissed Gill (90) He completed his five by catching him in the act of missing out and dismissing Ashwin in the same manner. Patel finished with figures of 5/103 in 21.4 overs and helped his team post India to 263 in the second innings to take a narrow 28-run lead.

Following his five-wicket haul, Patel scaled 19 wickets at an average of 17.26 from three innings at the Wankhede Stadium. He will be keen to continue his good form in the second innings and help his team register a historic 3-0 series win against India.