There have been eight hat-tricks taken by seven bowlers in World Cup history. While the first World Cup hat-trick was taken in 1987, the next was taken only in 1999. Since then, there has been at least one hat-trick in every version of the event. ICC Cricket World Cup 2015: Full Coverage
Shiamak Unwalla lists out the seven hat-tricks that have fallen in World Cup history.
The very first hat-trick in the World Cup was taken by Chetan Sharma. The Indian pacer bowled Ken Rutherford for a 54-ball 26, before cleaning up Ian Smith and Ewan Chatfield for first-ballers. He remains the only bowler in the history to get each of his victims out bowled.
New Zealand managed 221 for nine in their 50 overs before Krishnamachari Srikkanth and Sunil Gavaskar went ballistic, taking India to a comprehensive nine-wicket win. It was Gavaskar’s only ODI century, in what was his penultimate match.
Batting first, Pakistan managed to score 271 for nine after Saeed Anwar’s 103. Zimbabwe stuttered in their reply, blown apart by the pace-bowling trio of Shoaib Akhtar, Abdul Razzaq, and Azhar Madmood. When Saqlain came on to bowl his seventh over, Zimbabwe were 123 for eight, with the match effectively over already.
He managed to provide one final flourish though; after a brief resistance, he had Henry Olonga stumped by Moin Khan for a 31-ball five before Adam Huckle was stumped first ball, and last man Mpumelelo Mbangwa fell LBW as Pakistan wrapped up the match easily.
The only man in history to take a hat-trick off the first three balls of the match, Chaminda Vaas ripped the heart out of the Bangladesh batting in their World Cup 2003 encounter. Hannan Sarkar was bowled, Mohammad Ashraful was out caught and bowled, and Ehsanul Haque offered a catch to Mahela Jayawardene. Bangladesh never recovered, and huffed and puffed their way to 124.
Marvan Atapattu and Sanath Jayasuriya then went on to chase the target down in 21.1 overs, as Sri Lanka won by 10 wickets.
The second hat-trick of World Cup 2003 was taken by Brett Lee. Kenya batted first, and poked around to score just three runs off the first 3.3 overs before Lee struck for the first time. Kennedy Otieno, batting on one off 11 balls, was beaten all ends up and bowled off the fourth ball of the fourth over. New man Brijal Patel offered a catch to Ricky Ponting first ball before David Obuya was knocked over to give Lee his hat-trick.
Ravindu Shah and Steve Tikolo managed to take Kenya to 174. Left-arm spinner Aasif Karim then proceeded to make life hell for the Australians, taking three for seven in 8.2 overs as Australia huffed and puffed to a five-wicket win.
Only one man in history has taken two World Cup hat-tricks. His first hat-trick was record-breaking in itself; he did not take three wickets in three balls. No, Lasith Malinga couldn’t be bothered with such trivialities! Malinga did what Malinga does best: kill at the death.
Sri Lanka batted first against South Africa, and stumbled to 209 all out. South Africa were cantering at 205 for five in reply when Malinga came on to bowl the 45th over of the innings. Off the penultimate delivery of the over, he bowled Shaun Pollock with a slower delivery. He followed it up with a searing yorker that Andrew Hall could only scoop to the man at cover. Malinga had two wickets off the last two balls of the over. He continued in the 46th over, with the well-set Jacques Kallis (batting on 86) on strike. The hat-trick ball was quick and outside off stump. Kallis went for a square drive and nicked it behind. Malinga had a hat-trick, and Sri Lanka whiffed a chance. At 207 for eight, out strode Makhaya Ntini. Malinga speared in another yorker, and Ntini’s middle stump was knocked over. Four wickets in four balls, and Malinga had made history. South Africa managed to heave themselves over the line, but a match that was right in the bag went far too close for their comfort.
The 2011 World Cup is widely regarded as among the most successful of all editions. One thing that stood out was that the tournament saw two hat-tricks in two days! In Match 13 between West Indies and Netherlands, the Caribbean side stormed to 330 for eight in their 50 overs.
In reply, Netherlands’ innings was going nowhere, and at 113 for six, Roach removed Mudassar Bukhari for a fighting 24 off the fourth ball of his eight over. He started his next over by trapping Pieter Seelaar LBW for one. Off the very next ball, he had Bernard Loots also out LBW. He completed his hat-trick by getting last man Berend Westdijk bowled as West Indies won by a gargantuan 215 runs.
Malinga makes his second appearance on the list in what was Match 14 of the 2011 World Cup. Kenya batted first, but lost both openers with just eight runs on the board. That brought the Obuya brothers Collins and David to the middle. The duo added 94 for the third wicket before Malinga took his second wicket. No other Kenyan batsman managed to get going, and by the time Malinga came back to bowl the 42nd over, Kenya were already six down. He had Tanmay Mishra out LBW for a duck off his last ball, before returning in the next over to clean up Peter Ongondo and Shem Ngoche to complete his second World Cup hat-trick.
Kenya were bowled out for 142, which was duly chased down by Tillakaratne Dilshan, Upul Tharanga, and Kumar Sangakkara by nine wickets.
8. Steven Finn vs Australia, World Cup 2015
Steven Finn had a very strange match when England clashed with Australia in the second match of the ICC World Cup 2015. Aaron Finch (135) and Glenn Maxwell (66) put the English bowlers to the sword, and Finn was not spared either.
He was entrusted with bowling the final over of the innings, with Maxwell and Brad Haddin the two batsmen. Finn had figures of 9-0-63-2 coming into the over. Haddin took three runs off the first ball of the over before Maxwell hit a boundary of the second ball, and one run off the third.
What followed was almost fairytale: Haddin tried to go for a big hit and ended up getting a thick outside edge that flew down third man, where Stuart Broad took an excellent catch. Maxwell smacked the next ball down the ground, but Joe Root took a fantastic catch in the deep. Mitchell Johnson came out to face the hat-trick ball, and swung what was the last ball of the innings down mid-off’s throat as Finn took the only hat-trick in history that came off the last three balls of the 50th over of an innings.
(Shiamak Unwalla is a proud Whovian and all-round geek who also dabbles in cricket writing as a reporter with CricketCountry. His Twitter handle is @ShiamakUnwalla)
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