Ajaz Patel takes third five-wicket bag in tests during return to Mumbai with Black Caps

Ajaz Patel has taken plenty of five-wicket bags in his career, but his haul in the first innings of the second test between the Black Caps and India – which now stands at six – was extra special.

As the left-arm spinner departed Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, the city of his birth, at the end of the first day on Friday, he was photographed looking at the honours board by one of the Black Caps media staff.

At that stage, he had taken all four Indian wickets to fall, including that of captain Virat Kohli for a duck, in controversial circumstances, but it was the hosts who were on top in the series-deciding match, sitting at 221-4 after winning the toss and choosing to bat.

It took Patel four balls on the second morning on Saturday to claim his fifth wicket – Wriddhiman Saha, LBW for 27 – and only one more after that for him to get his sixth – Ravichandran Ashwin, who was bowled for a golden duck, but was confused as to what had happened and tried to review it as though he had been caught behind.

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Axar Patel played the hat-trick ball safely into the off-side and no further wickets fell before lunch, but Ajaz Patel now has his name on the honours board he was eyeing up the previous evening.

He joined Sir Richard Hadlee and John Bracewell as the third New Zealander to take five wickets in Mumbai.

Their hauls came during the same test in 1988 – New Zealand’s last win in India. Seamer Hadlee took 6-49 in the first innings, while off-spinner Bracewell took 6-51 in the second as they bowled India out for 145 and won by 136 runs.

Patel’s double strike in the second over of the day would have given the Black Caps hope they could run through India quickly on the second morning to get back in the contest in the series decider, but they didn’t get another after that in the first session.

Indian opener Mayank Agarwal had resumed on 120 and was still at the crease on 146, while Axar Patel was alongside him on 32 and their partnership for the seventh wicket stood at 61 with India’s total 285-6.

Patel has become the fifth New Zealander to take six wickets in an innings in Asia, after Daniel Vettori, who has done so five times, and Stephen Boock, Mark Craig, and Bracewell, who each did so once.

Boock and Craig are the only two to have taken seven. Boock took 7-87 in a loss to Pakistan in Hyderabad in 1984, while Craig took 7-94 in a win over Pakistan in Sharjah in 2014.

The best figures by a New Zealand spinner anywhere in the world are Boock’s, which were matched by Vettori against Australia in Auckland in 2000.

Hadlee is one of several seamers to have taken seven wickets for less than 87 and his haul of 9-52 against Australia at The Gabba in Brisbane in 1984 remains the best by any New Zealander.

Patel was set to be chasing those marks when play resumed after lunch on day two as he looks to improve on his new career-best mark.

At the end of play on day one, he said his performance on his return to the city he left as a child in 1996 was "what dreams are made of".

"The reality of test cricket is, if you put the ball in good areas for long periods of time you will see rewards," he added.

“It was my day today, and I’m very, very lucky to be sitting here with four wickets. I’m pretty happy about it being in my hometown, at Wankhede. It’s quite special for me.”

Patel’s previous five-wicket bags came in Abu Dhabi against Pakistan in 2018 when he took 5-59 in a win, and in Galle against Sri Lanka in 2019, when he took 5-89 in a loss.

Kohli wasn’t happy after being given out LBW as Patel’s third victim, believing he had got an inside edge on the delivery on the weather-affected first day.