Harbhajan makes history
Harbhajan Singh became first Indian to claim a Test match hat trick on the opening day of the Kolkata Test
Rajneesh Gupta
12-Mar-2001
Harbhajan Singh became first Indian to claim a Test match hat trick on the opening day of the Kolkata Test. Harbhajan first got Ricky Ponting plumb in front off the first ball of his 16th over. He then had the dangerman Adam Gilchrist also LBW and then completed his hattrick when Shane Warne offered a sharp chance at Forward Shortleg which was brilliantly taken by Sadagoppan Ramesh.
Harbhajan's hat trick is the 29th such instance achieved by only 26 bowlers -Nine Englishmen, eight Australians, three West Indians, two Pakistanis, a South African, a New Zealander, a Sri Lankan and an Indian. Australia's Hugh Trumble and Jimmy Matthews and Pakistan's Wasim Akram have done so twice each.
At 20 years 251 days Harbhajan is the second youngest to claim a Test hat trick after Pakistan's Abdur Razzaq who was 20 years 202 days of age while achieving this feat against Sri Lanka at Galle in 1999-00.
Eight Australians have claimed ten hat tricks, while nine Englishmen have one each, followed by three West Indians two Pakistanis on three occasions, one South African, one New Zealander, one Sri Lankan and one from India.
No bowler from Zimbabwe has achieved this feat.A total of eleven hat tricks have been witnessed in Australia (five in Melbourne, two in Sydney and Perth and one each in Adelaide and Brisbane).followed by six in England (three in Manchester, two in Leeds and one at Lord's), four in Pakistan (three in Lahore and one at Rawalpindi), three in South Africa (one each at Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Cape Town) and finally one each in New Zealand (at Christchurch), at a neutral venue in Bangladesh (at Dhaka), in Sri Lanka (at Galle),in Zimbabwe (at Harare)....and now in India (at Kolkata).
Lahore has the unique distinction of witnessing two separate hat-tricks at two different grounds - one at the Lawrence Gardens and two at the Gadaffi Stadium. Allom, Petherick and Fleming did so on their Test debut. Allom, in fact took four wickets in 5 balls. Trumble (his 2nd hat-trick) and Griffin did so in their last Tests. Trumble, Matthews and Wasim Akram are the only bowlers to do
it on two occasions. Matthews did so in the same match, but in separate innings in the same afternoon. Goddard was the oldest at 38 years and 87 days. Wasim Akram is the only Test captain to do so. Zoysa became the first bowler to take a hat trick off his first three balls in a Test match. The Walsh and Hughes hat tricks were spread over two innings.
Allom, Petherick and Fleming did the hat trick on debut. The second Trumble and the Griffin hat tricks were in the final Test of these players. Zoysa's hat trick was from the first three balls he delivered in the Test. The hat tricks of Walsh and Hughes were spread over two innings.
The accompanying table lists all Test hat-tricks:
Bowler For Vs Inns Test Venue Series Mode of Dismissals
FR Spofforth Aus Eng 1st 1st Melbourne 1878-79 2 bowled,1ct
W Bates Eng Aus 1st 2nd Melbourne 1882-83 1 bowled,1c&b,1ct
J Briggs Eng Aus 2nd 2nd Sydney 1891-92 1 bowled,1ct,1Lbw
GA Lohmann Eng SA 2nd 1st Pt.Elizabeth 1895-96 2 bowled,1 ct
JT Hearne Eng Aus 2nd 3rd Leeds 1899 1 bowled,2 ct
H Trumble Aus Eng 2nd 2nd Melbourne 1901-02 1 c&b,2 ct
H Trumble Aus Eng 2nd 5th Melbourne 1903-04 1 c&b,1 ct,1 Lbw
TJ Matthews Aus SA 1st 1st Manchester 1912 1 bowled,2 Lbw
TJ Matthews Aus SA 2nd 1st Manchester 1912 1 bowled,2 c&b
MJC Allom Eng NZ 1st 1st Christchurch 1929-30 1 LBW,1ct,1bowled
TWJ Goddard Eng SA 1st 1st Johannesburg 1938-39 1 c&b,1st,1bowled
PJ Loader Eng WI 1st 4th Leeds 1957 2 bowled,1 ct
LF Kline Aus SA 2nd 2nd Cape Town 1957-58 2 ct,1 Lbw
WW Hall WI Pak 1st 3rd Lahore (LG) 1958-59 1 Lbw,1ct,1bowled
GM Griffin SA Eng 1st 2nd Lord's 1960 1 ct,2 bowled
LR Gibbs WI Aus 1st 4th Adelaide 1960-61 1 Lbw,1ct,1bowled
PJ Petherick NZ Pak 1st 1st Lahore (Gad.)1976-77 1 c&b, 2 ct
CA Walsh WI Aus 1&2 1st Brisbane 1988-89 2 ct,1 Lbw
MG Hughes Aus WI 1&2 2nd Perth 1988-89 2 ct,1 Lbw
DW Fleming Aus Pak 2nd 2nd Rawalpindi 1994-95 2 ct,1 Lbw
SK Warne Aus Eng 2nd 2nd Melbourne 1994-95 1 Lbw,2 ct
DG Cork Eng WI 2nd 4th Manchester 1995 1 bowled,2 Lbw
D Gough Eng Aus 1st 5th Sydney 1998-99 1 ct, 2 bowled
Wasim Akram Pak SL 1st 1st Lahore (Gad.)1998-99 1 ct, 2 bowled
Wasim Akram Pak SL 2nd 1st Dhaka 1998-99 2 ct,1 bowled
DNT Zoysa SL Zim 1st 2nd Harare 1999-00 2 Lbw, 1 ct
Abdur Razzaq Pak SL 1st 2nd Galle 1999-00 1 ct, 2 Lbw
GD McGrath Aus WI 1st 2nd Perth 2000-01 3 ct
Harbhajan Ind Aus 1st 2nd Kolkata 2000-01 2 Lbw, 1 ct