Parthiv Patel is one player who does not seem to have aged since his debut. The Saurashtra cricketer admitted that he tried to increase the maturity quotient by growing his beard but still fails to look like a 33-year-old. In an episode of Breakfast With Champions, Patel recalled an incident where he did something immature that led to a confrontation with furious Matthew Hayden.
During India’s tour of Australia 2003-04, Patel was the 12th man of the team. Chasing a daunting total of 304, Australia was recovering from the early blows and depending on opener Hayden to win the match. After scoring a run-a-ball century, Hayden got out in the 34th over to Irfan Pathan.
On his way back to the pavilion, Patel who was carrying drinks for the teammates tried to tease the swashbuckling opener. He just said “woohoo” while going past Hayden which seemed to have triggered a reaction from the left-handed Australian.
As Patel was heading back to the dressing room, he saw Hayden standing on the way to the dressing room (tunnel) blocking his entrance. He said to Patel, “If you ever do this again to me, I will punch on your face”. (sic)
Patel had a rather funny reaction to it. He apologised to Hayden and crawled beneath his legs, as he is one foot (approximately) shorter than him.
Here’s the full episode –
However, after opening the innings with the Australian for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) he realised that Hayden is a different person altogether off the field. Even during India ‘A’ tours Hayden had hosted him at his home.
During the interview, Patel also revealed the times when he used to score 700-800 runs in Ranji Trophy but still would not get the call-up. The episode led to Patel captaining his team to their maiden Ranji Trophy title win in the 2016-17 season.
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He also admitted that it was their (him and other Indian wicketkeepers) poor performance which led to MS Dhoni’s rise as a legend in world cricket. He refused to believe that he was born in the wrong era and accepted the mistakes he made as an international cricketer.
