Yorkshire enlist New Zealand spinner Patel for final two Championship games

Yorkshire enlist New Zealand spinner Patel for final two Championship games

Yorkshire have signed New Zealand Test spinner Ajaz Patel for their final two Specsavers County Championship matches.

Current overseas player Keshav Maharaj was initially signed for three matches in June, but Yorkshire extended his deal by two matches earlier this month,

It means Maharaj will feature in the Championship game at Somerset, starting on September 10th, before Patel steps in.

The New Zealander will play at Headingley against Kent in Yorkshire’s penultimate match, before travelling to Edgbaston for the final game of the season against Warwickshire.

Maharaj took 28 wickets in his first four red-ball appearances for Yorkshire, picking up ten wickets against Somerset at Headingley and taking six for 95 against Nottinghamshire at Scarborough. He has one wicket in four Vitality Blast appearances.

Patel has 22 wickets in seven Test appearances, and was the leading wicket-taker in New Zealand’s August Test series in Sri Lanka, taking nine scalps. His five for 89 at Galle was bettered in the series only by Akila Dananjaya’s five for 80 on the same ground.

The 30-year-old is the leading wicket-taker in the Surrey Championship this season, having taken 56 wickets for Cranleigh as they sealed promotion from Division One to the Premier Division. 

Patel is Yorkshire’s third overseas player this season, joining Maharaj and Nicholas Pooran — who made just three Blast appearances — on the club’s roster.

Yorkshire sit 37 points behind Division One leaders Essex with three matches remaining.

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