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Thisara Perera and other T20I hat-tricks

The second Twenty20 International (T20I) between India and Sri Lanka at Ranchi started with some blistering batting by Indian openers but what catches eye was the unexpected hattrick by Thissara Perera in his third over of the match, which was also the 19th over of India’s batting.

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Thisara Perera took hattrick wickets in his third over of the match. Imag courtesy: Twitter
Thisara Perera took hattrick wickets in his third over of the match. Imag courtesy: Twitter

The second Twenty20 International (T20I) between India and Sri Lanka at Ranchi started with some blistering batting by Indian openers and then followed by some good bowling by the Sri Lankan bowlers in the middle overs. But what catches eye was the unexpected hat-trick by Thisara Perera in his third over of the match, which was also the 19th over of India’s batting. Indian batsmen Suresh Raina and Hardik Pandya, who were going with good run rate were suddenly blocked by Perera with low full tosses and slower ball in the start of the over. It probably irritated both the batsmen as they were eyeing a total of 200. Both managed to get only seven runs which also included three extra runs with two wides. Pandya, who was looking to hit every ball, swung his bat through the line against a low full toss but could only get a toe end of the bat and the ball flew to long on, which was easily caught by Danushka Gunathilaka. LIVE CRICKET SCORECARD: India vs Sri Lanka 2015-16, 2nd T20I at Ranchi

Pandya’s cameo end there but decibel volume at the ground didn’t decrease but did so when the son of the city, MS Dhoni came to bat. But Raina was on strike and played a foolish scoop shot, which went straight backward square leg. Yuvraj Singh walked in next. He hit another low full toss from Perera straight down the throat long on. One cannot blame him for that shot but not to forget that Perera got his maiden hat-trick in T20Is. This hat-trick was the first by a Sri Lankan, which came of three low full tosses. Overall it was the fourth hat-trick in T20Is history. Here’s a look back at the first three T20I hat-tricks. Also Read: Thisara Perera hat-trick trumps Shikhar Dhawan’s maiden half-century as India reach 196 for 6 against Sri Lanka in 2nd T20I at Ranchi

1. Brett Lee: The first hat-trick in a T20Is was taken by former Australian sppedster Brett Lee against Bangladesh in ICC World T20 2007. His hat-trick included Shakib Al Hasan, Mashrafe Mortaza and Alok Kapali. It came in the 17th over of the match, when Bangladeshi batsmen were trying to pace up their inning and Lee perhaps took the advantage of it with his clever bowling.

2. Jacob Oram: Next one took a bit more time to come and it was taken by New Zealand giant Jacob Oram against Sri Lanka in 2009 at Colombo. He took his first wicket in the last ball of the 17th over and the next two wickets were grabbed in the first two deliveries of the final over of the match. Oram’s hat-trick probably went unnoticed. His three wickets included Angelo Mathews, Nuwan Kulasekara and Malinga Bandara. Oram’s three wickets came at a stage when Sri Lanka needed nine to win off the final over.

3. Tim Southee: The third hat-trick probably came in a better way than the first two. It was taken by another New Zealand bowler — Tim Southee against Pakistan at Auckland on December 2010. His hat-trick included Younis Khan, Mohammad Hafeez and Umar Akmal. This came in the eighth over of the match.

Three out of four hattricks were taken during the slog overs but taking it in the middle of the innings is quite difficult. Though, Perera took hat-trick in the penultimate over of India’s batting but it surely stopped them from scoring a big total.

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