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All about hat-tricks

Sri Lanka's Lasith Malinga celebrates after clean bowling Australia's batsman Mitchell Johnson. (AFP PHOTO / Bradley)
Roar Guru
1st August, 2017
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At the 100th Test at the Oval, in July 2017, English spinner Moeen Ali took a hat-trick to help England to a 2-1 series lead against the touring South Africans.

In over 2000 Test matches, getting three batsmen out in three consecutive balls has been achieved only 43 times – indeed, Ali’s was the first hat-trick by an English spinner since Tom Goddard in 1838. 

Country wise break-up
England leads the list with 14, followed by Australia’s 11. But while the two traditional powers account for 25 of the 43 hat-tricks, bowlers from all ten Test-playing countries figure on the list.

There are four each by West Indian and Pakistan Bowlers. India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh and New Zealand figure twice, while Geoff Griffin and Andy Blignaut are the only representatives for South Africa and Zimbabwe.

Of the 43, 26 are quick bowlers, while 17 are spinners. 

First hat-trick ever 
A bank clerk turned tea merchant, Fred Spofforth was Australia’s first fast bowler. Nicknamed ‘The Demon’, he took Test cricket’s first hat-trick against England at Melbourne in only the third ever Test match played.

Spofforth is immortal also for the fact his 14 wickets at the Oval in 1882 aided Australia’s first win on English soil, leading to the satirical obituary in The Sporting Times that stated that English cricket had died and the Ashes would be taken to Australia. Therefore, Spofforth has a direct role in the legend of “The Ashes”. 

Players with more than one Test hat-trick
Hugh Trumble of Australia had hat-tricks against England in 1902 and 1904.

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Aussie Jimmy Matthews has the unusual record of taking hat-tricks in both innings of the same Test match, against South Africa at Old Trafford in 1912. Even more interestingly, both hat-tricks came on the same day and were his only six wickets in the match.

In 1999, Wasim Akram took two hat-tricks versus Sri Lanka, the time gap between his two hat-tricks being just nine days.

Stuart Broad’s two were against India at Nottinghamshire and Sri Lanka at Leeds. 

Stuart Broad celebrates with Joe Root

AP Photo/Jon Super

Hat-trick across two innings
Playing Australia at Brisbane in 1988, Courtney Walsh took the ninth and tenth Aussie wickets of first innings, then got Graeme Wood LBW with his first ball in the second innings to complete this rare feat.

Hat-trick across three overs and two innings
With the last ball of his 36th over, Merv Hughes took the wicket of Curtly Ambrose. With the first ball of his next over Hughes took another wicket, seeing the innings come to a close. Then, with his first ball of the second innings, he claimed his third. 

Hat-trick and 100 in same match
Offspinner Sohag Gazi of Bangladesh was hit for a six in the first ball of a Test match, by Chris Gayle – the only such occurrence in Test cricket.

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Gazi achieved the unique feat of hat-trick and century in the same Test against New Zealand at Chittagong in October 2013.  

Hat-trick on debut
English fast bowler Maurice Allom not only took a hat-trick in his Test debut, against New Zealand at Christchurch, he took four wickets in five balls, a feat which was later repeated by Chris Old and Wasim Akram.

Off-spinner Peter Petherick was the second. Making his first-class debut at 33 and his Test debut aged 34, versus Pakistan at Lahore, he picked up his hat-trick.

The third cricketer to take a debut hat-trick was Aussie quick Damien Fleming, who picked up the wickets at Rawalpindi in October 1994. In the Adelaide Test versus India in 1999, Fleming had a chance for a second hat-trick, but Shane Warne missed a simple catch in the slips.

Hat-tricks in ODIs
There have been only 42 hat-tricks in over 3800 ODIs, 37 having been taken by pace bowlers.

Jalal-ud-din of Pakistan took the first, Lasith Malinga has taken three of them, while Wasim Akram, Saqlain Mushtaq and Chaminda Vaas have taken hat-tricks twice.

Akram and Mohd Sami are the only two bowlers to achieve the feat in both Tests and ODIs, while Malinga is the only player to take four ODI wickets in four balls.

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Hat-tricks in T20
International T20s have seen only five hat-tricks in more than 600 matches played.

Brett Lee was the first player to achieve this feat, the four other being Jacob Oram, Tim Southee, Thisara Perera and Lasith Malinga.

Lee, Thisara and Malinga have achieved this feat in both ODIs and T20s.

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