Patel hits century, Woodcock misses out

Jeetan Patel is all smiles but Luke Woodcock is anything but.

Patel scored his maiden first-class hundred batting at No 10 for Warwickshire against Yorkshire in a county match at Edgbaston at the weekend.

As for Woodcock he only got as far as Heathrow airport recently before being sent home because of a visa problem.

New legislation is making it increasingly difficult for overseas players to get permission to play in England, and Woodcock is back in Wellington cooling his heels until the issue is sorted by his Lancashire league club Church.

"It's frustrating, but hopefully I get back in the next week or so," Woodcock said.

"I arrived there and then got sent home that night. I've been to England to play cricket six times and I never expected this.

" It's a setback and I never saw it coming, but looking at it now, I didn't have the right documents."

Woodcock is training regularly in the indoor nets at the Westpac Stadium but has already missed the opening two rounds of the Lancashire league. He has also lost earnings and incurred an extra airfare.

As for Patel, he scored 120 from 155 balls to help lift Warwickshire from 241-8 to 474-9 against the Matthew Hoggard-led Yorkshire attack.

His stand of 233 in 47 overs with Jonathan Trott is the ninth highest ninth-wicket partnership in first-class history and Patel became the first man to score a century on first-class debut for Warwickshire since Kumar Sangakkara in 2007.

Cricinfo reported "Patel's was a chanceless affair that suggested a batting talent that has so far gone unfulfilled; there was nothing fortunate about it."

Patel's previous best first-class score was 58 not out.

He was not so successful with the ball, finishing with 1-190 from 47 overs.

- © Fairfax NZ News