There have been many bowlers who have managed to play one day international cricket for their country. Some with distinction, others without it. Yet taking a wicket or winning a match is the ultimate achievement for all those who have donned the national colours. But there have been a selected few who have done their country proud by taking not one or two, but as many as three wickets off as many deliveries, and taking a feat known as hat trick in cricket circles.
Sri Lankan fast bowler Farveez Maharoof is the latest bowler to do so. He took an amazing hat-trick against India in the final league match of the Asia Cup on June 22nd 2010 at Dambulla, Sri Lanka. His feat was amazing because no batsmen was able to open their account, helping the hosts dismiss them for a score they achieved for the loss of 3 wickets. But was he the first to do so? No. A journey through one day hat tricks will tell you that it was achieved 25 times before Maharoof did it!
Pakistani fast bowler Jalal-ud-din was the first ever to register a hat-trick in One Day Internationals. His feat came in 1982 against Australia at Hyderabad. In 1986, the tall lanky Australian pacer Bruce Reid became the second player to dismiss three players off as many deliveries. He achieved the feat against New Zealand and cemented his place with the display. India’s Chetan Sharma then emulated the feat by taking the first hat-trick in World Cups, by doing so in the 1987 crucial match against New Zealand.
A couple of years later, Pakistan’s fast pacer Wasim Akram helped the greenshirts win matches through his twin hat-tricks at Sharjah. His first feat came against West Indies where he clean bowled Jeff Dujon, Malcolm Marshall and Curtly Ambrose in 1989 while his second such feat came in the final of the second Austral-Asia Cup, in 1990, against the then World Champions Australia.
India’s premier all-rounder Kapil Dev took the sixth hat-trick against Sri Lanka in 1991 at Calcutta (now Kolkata). The feat was emulated the same year when Pakistan’s Aaqib Javed became the youngest bowler to achieve a hat-trick, the seventh in one-dayers. He won the match and the tournament for Pakistan, finishing with the haul of 7-37, then a world record.
New Zealand’s Danny Morrison matched Kapil Dev’s feat when he took the eighth hat-trick in ODIs. Incidentally, Kapil Dev was one of the victims of this hat trick at Napier in 1994. Waqar Younis took the ninth hat-trick as he became the fourth Pakistani to do so. He did so against New Zealand at East London where all of his victims were clean bowled.
Saqlain Mushtaq became the first and so far the only spinner to achieve a hat-trick in ODIs when he dismissed three Zimbabweans at Peshawar in November 1996 to take the 10th hat-trick in ODIs. Two months later in January 1997, Zimbabwe’s Eddo Brandes accounted for three Englishmen off three balls at Harare to register the eleventh in the game.
Australia’s Anthony Stuart took a hat-trick in his second match against Pakistan just thirteen days after Brandes. Two years later, Saqlain re-entered the record books with his second hat-trick - thirteenth in ODIs - which was incidentally the second hat-trick in the World Cup. He dismissed three Zimbabweans to steer Pakistan into the semi finals.
Sri Lanka’s Chaminda Vaas then had a gem of a match in December 2001 in which he not only bowled Zimbabwe out for a record low score of 38 but also became the first bowler to take 8 wickets in a match. Vaas finished with match figures of 8-19 off his 8 overs which included a hat-trick - the fourteenth in One-day Internationals.
Mohammad Sami became the fifth Pakistani to register a hat-trick in one-dayers. He took his amazing feat in his sixth match at Sharjah, and was succeeded by Vaas’s second hat-trick which came against Bangladesh at Pietermaritzburg in the 2003 World Cup match. Australia’s Brett Lee took a hat trick in the same event, dismissing three Kenyans off successive balls.
The same year English bowler James Anderson achieved the feat of hat-trick by dismissing three Pakistanis at The Oval, and his feat was matched by another Englishman, Steve Harmison who in 2004, ended the innings of three Indians at Nottingham. Although South Africa’s Charl Langeveldt, Bangladesh’s Shahadat Hussain and West Indies’ Jerome Taylor haven’t been regulars for their sides, they join the greats by virtue of taking three wickets off as many balls. Langeveldt’s feat came against West Indies in 2005 at Barbados, Shahadat Hossain’s came against Zimbabwe at Harare in 2006 while Jerome Taylor’s came against the mighty Australians in Mumbai.
New Zealand pace sensation Shane Bond also thrilled the Aussies whenever he faced his neighbours, but in 2007, at Hobart, he mesmerized them by taking 3 wickets off 3 deliveries. Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga bettered the feat by Bond and all, by taking 4 wickets during the 2007 World Cup match, off four deliveries. No bowler has managed to repeat the feat yet and it seems it will stay for long since the game is being played under rules that favour batsmen.
The last two hat tricks in one dayers have belonged to all-rounders, first came Andrew Flintoff from England who took down three West Indians at St Lucia last year while Farveez Maharoof repeated the feat on 22nd June to become the 23rd bowler to achieve the 26th hat trick in the 50 over format.
Only three bowlers - Pakistan's Wasim Akram, Saqlain Mushtaq and Sri Lanka's Chaminda Vaas - have taken two hat tricks each. Overall, 6 Pakistanis on 8 occasions, 3 Sri Lankans on 4 occasions, 3 Englishmen, 3 Australians, 2 Indians, 2 Kiwis and 1 from Zimbabwe, West Indies, Bangladesh and South Africa each have entered the record books for their record feat.
Tags: