Kuldeep Yadav Becomes First Indian to Take Two ODI Hat-tricks
NEW DELHI : With West Indies looking fight back against India’s massive target of 388 in Visakhapatnam, ace spinner Kuldeep Yadav marked a return to form with a hat-trick in the 33rd over of the innings.
The left-arm spinner first picked up the wicket of Shai Hope when captain Virat Kohli was able to pick a complete a fantastic catch at the deep mid wicket boundary. Up next was young Jason Holder and Yadav dragged him out of the crease before beating the bat only for Rishabh Pant to complete the dismissal with ease.
Off the next delivery, the last of the over, Yadav gave the delivery some air outside the off stump and Alzarri Joseph duly edged it straight into the hands of Kedar Jadhav at second slip.
The achievement makes him the only Indian bowler to take hat-tricks in ODI cricket, with the first having come against Australia in 2017 at the Eden Gardens. This is also the first time an Indian bowler has managed to take a hat-trick against West Indies in ODI cricket.
As far as the Indian bowlers are concerned, Chetan Sharma claimed a hat-trick against New Zealand in Nagpur in 1987, Kapil Dev did it against Sri Lanka in Kolkata in 1991. Kuldeep Yadav was the third Indian bowler to claim a hat-trick in ODIs when he dismissed Australia’s Matthew Wade, Ashton Agar and Pat Cummins on back-to-back deliveries in Kolkata in 2017. More recently, Mohammed Shami picked up an ODI hat-trick in an ICC World Cup 2019 game against Afghanistan.
Shami too had a chance to take a hat-trick a little before Yadav managed it when he dismissed Nicholas Pooran and Kieron Pollard of consecutive deliveries.
(With Agency Inputs ).
