Ranji Trophy 2017-18, Final: Rajneesh Gurbani opens up on his hat-trick

Delhi were 271 for 6 when the Ranji trophy 2017-18 final began on the second day. Neither Delhi nor Vidarbha held an upper hand at that stage. Nonetheless, Rajneesh Gurbani, Vidarbha’s semi-final star, excelled once again. Gurbani picked his third consecutive five-wicket haul and fifth in last 7 innings. Gurbani reached his five-for with a hat-trick, rattling the stumps on all three occasions.

Talking about his hat-trick after stumps on Day Two, Gurbani revealed his game plan: “I was preparing from yesterday to be on the field so that I can bowl the first over today … I was preparing myself all night so that I could bowl the first ball. I knew that if I bowled well then the team could possibly win. I was already intent on taking a wicket off every ball, my plan was always to bowl at the wickets.”

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Reliving the experience, Gurbani shared the drama before bowling the hat-trick ball: “I got the first and second wicket off the fifth and sixth ball. So when I was about to bowl the next over in my run-up, someone from the public shouted ‘hat-trick ball’. So I realized it then, to be frank. But I was still thinking ‘bowl it on the stumps. Hat-trick is another matter’.”

At present, Vidarbha are 209 for 4 riding on half-centuries from Faiz Fazal and (unbeaten) Wasim Jaffer. However, they would need a handy lower order contribution to bag a big lead.

In 1934-35, Baqa Jilani had become the first bowler to register a hat-trick in Ranji Trophy, for Northern India against Southern India at Amritsar. Gurbani became only the second bowler to claim a hat-trick in a Ranji final after Tamil Nadu’s B Kalyanasundaram, who had achieved the feat against Bombay in 1972-73.