The IPL stayed witness to a remarkable turnaround of the tide and in a pulsating encounter where the needle kept on lingering consistently from one side to the other, it was Yuzvendra Chahal’s magical 18th over that sealed the deal for the Rajasthan Royals against KKR in a sternum-churning contest on Monday night.
Chahal was whacked for aplenty till his 3rd over, but it was his final over the day that saw him totally turning the complexion of the fray with an over that started with a bang and then exploded into the turner’s magnum opus.
He bagged the all-important scalp of Shreyas Iyer, Shivam Mavi and Pat Cummins to complete a resonating hat-trick to leave the chase for the Knights completely crippled. Even though Umesh Yadav put in a desperate shift in the end that did spark hopes for another miraculous turnaround, Obed McCoy’s fine 20th over cleaned the KKR resistance to seal the win for the Royals.
Chahal’s hat-trick was another feather to his already bloated crown that saw him bag his first fifer and also claim his first hat-trick. A hat-trick is rare in the sport and even if you put all the world’s hat-tricks in cricket together, it wouldn’t mount to more than 3-4 pages in a book. As Chahal bagged a remarkable record for himself, let us quickly take a look at the list of bowlers who have claimed a hat-trick against the Kolkata Knight Riders.
#1 Makhaya Ntini – 4/21, 2008
This happened without Ntini’s realization as he claimed the first of his hat-trick quite a while back. Sourav Ganguly was the first to depart when Ntini decided to come over the wicket to the former Indian captain and cleaned him up with a ripper that scorched down Ganguly’s middle stump.
Ntini’s next victim was Debabrata Das who was completely beaten for pace as his outrageous attempt to play an international speedster of repute with a cheeky disdain would haunt him for life. David Hussey was the final scalp of his hat-trick as a similar delivery that was angling in on the stumps was way faster than Hussey could have anticipated and by the time, he brought his bat down, his stumps were a cold mess.
#2 Pravin Tambe – 3/26, 2014
This was one of the most remarkable collapses in the history of the franchise tournaments. Chasing 171, KKR was cruising at 121 for none. Watson dealt them the opening blows that suddenly witnessed them tottering and it was Pravin Tambe who sealed the fate of the contest with a mind-blowing hat-trick. Add to it the remarkable fact that he claimed it in two legal deliveries.
The first victim to his devastating turn was Manish Pandey who absolutely had no clue about what was he supposed to do and by the time he would turn back, the timbre was dislodged by Sanu Samson. He followed it up with another peach that would send the menacing Yusuf Pathan back to the hut as the latter slammed back the delivery straight into the arms of Tambe. The final nail on the coffin was that of Ryan Ten Doeschate, who couldn’t resist the urge of driving a tossed-up delivery and the ball smacked his pads which clearly was tracking back to the stumps.
#3 Yuzvendra Chahal – 5/40, 2022
Chahal was the latest one to add to this glorious list as Venkatesh Iyer danced down the track without even realizing where the ball was and quite expectedly Samson completed the stumping. However, that was not even the beginning of the hat trick.
The hat-trick started with Shreyas Iyer’s massive scalp as a straight delivery in the line of the stumps would kiss his pads without any deflection along the way. Shivam Mavi would play a poorly controlled slog that would go straight down the gullet of Riyan Parag at long-on. Pat Cummins would be the last to depart as he failed to pick up Chahal’s turn and Samson would grab a belter to send the Royals and Yuzvendra Chahal into delirious rapture.
