The Central Stags’ frontline spinner Ajaz Patel is going to have to extend his house to accommodate all the trophies he has amassed in the last three days.
First the 29-year-old’s dominance in this season’s Plunket Shield saw him nudge out Stags teammate Blair Tickner for NZC’s prestigious Domestic Player of the Year Award at the 2018 ANZ New Zealand Cricket Awards on Thursday night.
Patel wasn’t at the big do in Auckland in person because the Stags were still busy finishing their undefeated Plunket Shield season at Napier’s Nelson Park that day.
Hawke's Bay teammates Doug Bracewell and Patel lifted the Shield at their home ground. PHOTOSPORT
But on Friday, NZC CEO David White personally delivered the handsome trophy to Patel at the Central Districts Cricket Association’s annual awards at Napier’s new waterfront Convention Centre.
At CDCA’s season awards, Patel found himself in need of an extra pair of arms after having taken out the trophies for the Player’s Player (a peer-judged award based on match by match votes across the season by his teammates); Plunket Shield Player of the Year; and the overall Central Stags Player of the Year trophy.
And of course, he also got to lift the biggest trophy of all — the coveted Plunket Shield.
Undefeated champions for 2017/18. PHOTOSPORT
For the diminutive left-armer, it capped another impressive season in which he claimed a total of 72 wickets across all three formats, and finished as New Zealand’s premier first-class wicket-taker for a head-turning third consecutive summer, claiming 48 Plunket Shield wickets from nine matches including a phenomenal seven five-wicket bags.
Having set himself a personal goal to achieve 40 wickets in this season's Plunket Shield, Patel ended up bettering his own expectations, even after having missed a round when he was called into a New Zealand XI selection for the first time.
“I’m truly humbled by all the awards and accolades that have come my way," says Patel, "especially playing alongside the likes of Ticks and Greg Hay, and having witnessed first-hand Haysie’s own very consistent Plunket Shield season with the bat for us this summer.
“Playing with this group of individuals in the Stags this season has meant the world to me. It’s a special bunch.”
Fittingly Ajaz Patel took the final wicket of the Stags' solid season. PHOTOSPORT
For a player who had not previously been in the selectors’ mix for New Zealand A tours and the like, the call-up to the two NZ XI warm-up games against England during Round Eight has given him even more motivation, he said, to keep pushing for higher honours.
Patel’s 48 first-class wickets in 2017/18 came at an average of just 21.57, his best return yet on both fronts, following 43 wickets at 33.69 from eight matches in 2015/16 and 44 wickets from nine matches at 30.81 last summer.
Patel's five-fors are stacking up. MButcher/NZC
All up, he now sits on a hoard of 187 career wickets from just six first-class seasons, all of them for the Central Stags who adopted him from his Auckland base after occasional youthful appearances for the Auckland Under-19s and Auckland A, but seemingly no interest from the Auckland Aces’ top brass in signing him up.
It has been to the Aces’ detriment, two of his three first-class match 10-fors having been achieved against them at one of his happy hunting grounds, Eden Park Outer Oval.
Patel also again performed a valuable role as the Stags’ nightwatchman across the 2017/18 first-class season, and, clinched the winning runs under pressure when the Stags chased down a big total in their crunch Ford Trophy win against Canterbury in Palmerston North — the side going on to make both the white-ball Grand Finals of 2017/18, and qualifying top in The Ford Trophy.
Patel performed in all formats. PHOTOSPORT
He returned 11 wickets from his third year in action in the national one-day comp — his best yet; plus 13 for the Burger King Super Smash: again, a personal season best after having thrived with his white ball workload following the 2017 retirement of Marty Kain.
For the focused Patel, the only thing he has ever seemed to need is the opportunity to prove himself.
Leading Wicket-Takers 2017/18
- Ajaz Patel • Central Stags, left-arm spin • 48 wickets at 21.52, BB 6-48, 7x5wi, 1x10wm
- Logan van Beek • Wellington Firebirds, right-arm pace • 40 at 14.47, BB 6-46, 3x5wi, 1x10wm
- Hamish Bennett • Wellington Firebirds, right-arm pace • 38 at 15.39, BB 5-14, 2x5wi, 1x10wm
- Jeetan Patel • Wellington Firebirds, right-arm spin • 36 at 22.02, BB 7-105, 4x5wi, 1x10wm
- Matt McEwan • Auckland Aces, right-arm pace • 36 at 24.77, BB 6-48, 2x5wi
- Iain McPeake • Wellington Firebirds, right-arm pace • 35 at 19.34 BB 5-21, 3x5wi, 1x10wm
- Jimmy Baker • Northern Districts, right-arm pace • 34 at 24.76 BB 6-72, 2x5wi
- Lockie Ferguson • Auckland Aces, right-arm pace • 33 at 17.39 BB 7-34, 5x5wi, 1x10wm
- Blair Tickner • Central Stags, right-arm pace • 30 at 29.03 BB 5-23, 1x5wi
- Scott Kuggeleijn • Northern Districts, right-arm pace • 30 at 26.43 BB 7-48, 2x5wi
Tickner, Van Beek and McEwan all claimed first-class hat-tricks in the 2017/18 season
10 or more wickets in a match: Ish Sodhi (Northern Districts, 12-62), Lockie Ferguson (12-78), Hamish Bennett (10-48), Iain McPeake (10-51), Ajaz Patel (10-81), Logan van Beek (10-117), Jeetan Patel (10-178)
