It has been 18 days since New Zealand left-arm spinner Ejaz Patel became the third bowler in the history of Test cricket after Jim Laker and Anil Kumble to take ten wickets in an innings. During India’s first innings in the second Test at the Wankhede Stadium, Patel was consistent in his efforts to take all ten wickets in 47.5 overs, where he was born and spent his childhood.
On his way to achieve the incredible feat, Patel was not thinking much about joining an exclusive club. He said, ‘I started thinking about it only when I got the ninth wicket (Jayant Yadav). To be honest with you, at the same time, I didn’t really think too much about the club. I thought how cool it would be to take ten wickets in an innings.”
“Once that happened, I realized it was only a limited number of people who actually did it. The feeling that I was one of them was quite special and humbling. I really didn’t expect it to happen.” It will unfold the way it is. As the day goes on, I expected to pick up six or seven. Finishing with ten was quite an achievement,” Patel said.
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Prior to Mumbai, Patel had played a decisive role in the first Test draw for New Zealand in Kanpur, albeit with the bat. In the company of all-rounder Rachin Ravindra, Patel had batted in 23 deliveries as the Indian-origin pair denied the hosts victory with a solitary scalp. Patel described the situation as “stressful” but not thinking about the consequences helped him.
“I was surprisingly rested. Rachin had been batting for quite a while. So, I just asked him for some feedback on what the ball was doing. It was very simple. ‘Try to play as straight as you can’. I was working really hard with my batting and wanted to get ahead in that aspect of my game. I just looked to make sure I was ready for every ball and then forgot about it. Didn’t worry too much about the result.”
He said, ‘I was not thinking that if I get out, we will lose the match or if I continue, we will draw the match. It was more about looking at one ball at a time and really focusing on one ball. Quite a stressful situation but getting the results out of my mind helped me deal with it. Rachin was brilliant at the other end as well. Only positive affirmations at the end and saying ‘it played well or maybe try and try it’. It was a stressful situation, but it was really good to recover from.”
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Patel last played a Test match against England at Edgbaston in June, before the two Test matches against India. The left-arm spinner was concerned about getting some playing time with the red ball ahead of the tour. But bowling a lot of overs at his local cricket club in Auckland helped him.
“I had a lot of overs under my belt. But the problem was trying to take high intensity overs in an environment where it was very difficult to do so. I used to go to my local cricket club and go there and use their outside nets to bowl. I just wanted to bowl at one stump and every session, I would look to bowl 15-20 overs. I did this about three to four times a week. It really created volume. But my main focus was to make sure my action was good.”
“I knew when I came to India in a competitive environment, I only needed to worry about starting to think about the game, which I took a while to really get into that kind of groove and really think about . About getting out in the middle and getting the batsmen out.”
Patel knows that whenever he goes out to play for New Zealand in Tests, there is always hope of doing well after his stellar performance in Mumbai. But he plans to focus on his process, which has given him excellent results in the past. “I always go with that mindset. It’s about making sure I prepare well for the game and then in the game, I really follow my procedures.”
“My process in the game is very simple. I focus on one ball at a time and try not to look too far in terms of results. I am very comfortable that if I watch my process, the result will be fixed automatically. It’s about controlling it and making sure I really shorten my game to one ball at a time and let everything else come to the fore.”
Out of the mandatory quarantine, Patel is happy to be back with his family, who are still happy with their ten wickets in an innings in Mumbai. “They are all very excited and happy. It’s great to see how happy the family is and how happy it has brought everyone and how happy they are to see this achievement.”
But the happiest thing for him has been to be with his daughter. “The biggest thing was seeing my daughter and spending time with her. Spending time with her has been even more special and she has changed a lot in the last month and a half. She’s just nine months old and whenever I come back from a tour, she’s a little different and more quirky. It was great.”
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