Harshal Patel: Playing his second international match, Harshal Patel contributed with a crucial cameo at the Eden Gardens tonight.
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During the third T20I of the ongoing New Zealand’s tour of India in Kolkata, India have scored a formidable 184/7 in their allotted quota of 20 overs after captain Rohit Sharma won the toss and chose to bat.
A 69-run opening partnership between Sharma (56) and Ishan Kishan (29) witnessed India scoring 69 runs in a boundary-filled powerplay. Just when it appeared that the hosts would cross the 200-run mark by the end of their innings, runs started to dry up for India on the back of batters getting out in quick succession.
In the next 10 overs, India scored 71 runs and lost half their side in the process. Had it not been for Harshal Patel (18) and Deepak Chahar’s (21*) cameos in the death overs, India wouldn’t have scored 36 runs in the last three overs.
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With Patel and Chahar scoring two fours and a six each, it really put India in a dominating position at the halfway mark of the match. Lower-order batters contributing swiftly with the bat augurs well for the Indian team especially in the shortest format.
Axar Patel and Harshal Patel relationship
In addition to making his T20I debut in the second T20I in Ranchi, Patel kick-started his international career in the best possible manner by winning the Man of the Match award for being the pick of the Indian bowlers.
Harshal Patel’s cameo with the bat also saw him batting with all-rounder Axar Patel for the first time at the highest level. Contrary to some assumptions across social media platforms, it is work mentioning that Harshal Patel and Axar Patel are not brothers or even related to each other.
Having said that, readers must note that both the Patels were born in Gujarat. While Harshal Patel was born in 1990 in Sanand, Axar Patel was born in Anand in 1994.
Harshal, who had made his List A debut for Gujarat in 2009, had soon moved to Haryana to ply his trade for them a decade ago. Axar, on the other hand, had first played competitive cricket for Gujarat in 2012. When not playing for India, Axar still represents Gujarat in domestic cricket.
