Picture Credit: Twitter
Team India won the two match Test series against New Zealand on Monday at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium. Even though the men in blue were able to defeat New Zealand, individual contributions of some players did not go unnoticed. Having said that, Ajaz Patel, who was born in Mumbai and later shifted to New Zealand was a key player of the series. He took all 10 wickets in the first innings during the second Test. This special bowling performance will always remain the highlight of his career.
Patel became the third bowler in the history of Test cricket to achieve this special feat and joined a list of elite cricketers. Before Ajaz, the two other bowlers to pick 10 wickets in a Test innings were Jim Laker in 1956 against Australia and Anil Kumble in 1999 against Pakistan.
Although team India won the match comfortably, Ajaz Patel's magnificent show has become the talk of the town. He went on to gift his match jersey for the MCA's upcoming museum. The BCCI also shared a hilarious moment when Axar Patel, Ajaz Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Rachin Ravindra of team India and New Zealand together posed for a group picture after the post-match presentation.
It is to be noted that Ajaz Patel was lauded by the entire cricket fraternity. Indian off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin also lauded his performance with a standing ovation. There's a little more that Ashwin did which caught everyone's attention. Ashwin took to Twitter to request for Ajaz Patel's Twitter account to be verified after the kind of heroics he showed on field during the 2nd Test.
Ashwin tweeted, "Dear @verified, a ten wicket bag in an innings definitely deserves to be verified here! @AjazP."
Check out Ashwin's tweet here:
Now, thanks to Ashwin, Twitter has responded to the request and has made Ajaz Patel's account a verified one with a blue tick. Ashwin went on to thank the Verified blue badge source after the admin enabled the blue tick for Ajaz Patel's twitter account.
Ajaz ended the match with figures of 14/225. He was also the leading wicket-taker of the series with 17 wickets from both games at an average of 22.06. Meanwhile, Ravichandran Ashwin got the player of the series award as he picked 14 wickets at an average and strike rate of 11.35 and 44.1 respectively.