Indian wicketkeeper Parthiv Patel has recalled a memory when Australian opener Matthew Hayden got angry on him during an ODI match of his early international career. In a recent episode of ‘Breakfast With Champions’, Parthiv opened up that incident to Gaurav Kapoor.
It was the fifth ODI in the 2003/04 VB Series (tri-nation series between the hosts Australia, India and Zimbabwe) between Australia and India at Brisbane on January 18, 2004. Under Sourav Ganguly’s captaincy, India set a big total on the board of 303/4 (50 overs) at the first batting, thanks to VVS Laxman’s unbeaten hundred (103*) and Sachin Tendulkar (86 runs) & Rahul Dravid’s (74) crucial knocks.
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Chasing down a big total, Australia was losing their wickets in regular interval, but the opener Matthew Hayden was able to stick in the crease and held the team’s hope. He played a great knock of 109 runs off 107 balls (12 balls) before Irfan Pathan dismissed him by a caught behind to the wicketkeeper Rahul Dravid.
While Hayden was returning to the dressing room after getting out, Parthiv Patel, who had been not selected for that game and carrying the water for the on-field players, mocked him by sounding just “woohoo”.
It made angry the Aussie opener who stopped Parthiv during his returning path to the dressing room and angrily said as per Parthiv, “If you ever do this again to me, I will punch on your face.”
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The young Indian guy apologised for his action and ran away from him.
That wicket was crucial for the Indian team who later secured a memorable 19 runs victory after bundling the hosts for 284 runs (49.4 overs). It was India’s first ODI victory against Australia in Australia since December 1991. In between more than 12 years, India had lost 11 consecutive ODIs against Australia in Australia.
However, that tiny incident didn’t affect much in their relationship as Hayden and Parthiv both played together in IPL for Chennai Super Kings (CSK) from 2008 to 2010, while they were the regular opening partners for sometimes.
