Till date, there have been 17 IPL Hat-tricks in all the ten IPL seasons so far. The IPL Hat-tricks are quite strange and represent the tournament by and large. There are broken hat-tricks, there are forgotten hat-tricks, there are hat-tricks in losing cause, a whole plethora of them. Yuvraj Singh has two IPL Hat-tricks while Rohit Sharma boasts one. The strangest co-incidence occurred on 14th April 2017 is a day of double hattrick.
It was a double-header day. Royal Challengers Bangalore was hosting Mumbai Indians at Bangalore in the afternoon-game while Gujarat Lions took on the Rising Pune Supergiant team at the Saurashtra cricket ground of Rajkot.
Asked to bat first, Royal Challengers depended heavily on their two batting stars in Virat Kohli and AB De Villiers. Kolhi played a tremendous lone hand in scoring 62 runs off 47 balls. Rest of the batting could not match the standards and fell flat. Even ABD could not impress and get out for 19 off 21 balls. RCB totaled only 142 in 20 overs.
The low total demanded a stunning bowling performance and that’s what RCB started with. West Indian spinner Samuel Badree gave only four runs in his first over. Binny took out MI opener Jos Buttler from the other end. Badree continued with his second over, to create history.
On the second ball of the third over, Parthiv Patel failed to read a googly and handed a simple catch to Chris Gayle at the short extra-cover. Mumbai Indians bravely sent out Mitchell McClenaghan to score a few quick runs, he walked back straightaway after handing an easy catch on a low full-toss. Batsmen had crossed and Rohit faced the hattrick ball.
The season was already not going Sharma’s way. He had been dismissed on a googly twice before. Badree added one more to the tally. He broke through Sharma’s defense to complete the hat-trick. After Sunil Narine, he became the second WI bowler to take a hat-trick.
The effort went in the vain though as riding on Kieron Pollard’s 70 from 47 balls, Mumbai Indians got home with seven balls and four wickets in spare. In the night match, Rising Pune Supergiants were batting first against Gujarat Lions at Rajkot.
Playing his first ever IPL match, Andre Tye stepped up to bowl the last over of the first inning, RPS stood at 167/5, aiming to end up at 180. Ankit Sharma, facing the first ball, tried going big but only got the elevation. Brendon McCullum snapped up the swirling catch. Next ball, Manoj Tiwary flicked a slower-one straight to Ishan Kishan at the deep square leg.
Shardul Thakur came out to face Andrew Tye now. Sensing the lack of batting ability, Tye chose the proven white-ball formula, full and straight. Shardul failed to connect, the ball crashed onto the middle stump. Andrew Tye was jubilant, he not only had the hattrick but also completed his five-for.
Tye was luckier than Badree to end up on the winning side as the Gujarat Lions chased the total with immense ease. 14th April 2017 became the first and only day in the IPL to witness two hattricks.
