Rajkot: Kings XI Punjab all-rounder Axar Patel claimed the first hat-trick of the Indian Premier League 2016 against Gujarat Lions at the Saurashtra Cricket Association Stadium in Rajkot today.
Dismissing Dinesh Karthik, Dwayne Bravo and Ravindra Jadeja in three consecutive deliveries, Axar became the 11th player in the history of IPL to take a hat-trick.
Axar Patel, Punjab’s left-arm spinner, shattered Gujarat Lions’ batting line-up taking four wickets in five deliveries.
In his second over, which was the seventh over of Gujarat’s innings, Patel dismissed Dwayne Smith on the third ball who was trying to hit a lofted shot but got caught at the long off.
Ravindra Jadeja took a single on the next ball bringing Dinesh Karthik on strike. On the very next delivery, Patel bowled Karthik off the inside edge.
On the last ball of the over, he bagged his third wicket when Dwayne Bravo dragged a quicker delivery on to leg stump.
To complete his hat-trick, Axar had to wait for the next four overs.
In the 11th over of the innings, Patel dismissed Jadeja on the very first ball, who extracted an outside edge and was caught safely by wicketkeeper Wriddhiman Saha, thereby completing the hat-trick.
Punjab’s left-arm orthodox bowler finished with four for 21 in his 4-over slot, his best bowling figures in T20 cricket.
This is the 14th hat-trick in the history of Indian Premier League. Leg-spinner Amit Mishra owes three of them (2008, 2011, 2014), whereas Yuvraj Singh has done it twice, both in the 2009 season.
