In the second unofficial ODI of the three-match series between India A and New Zealand A at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Sunday (September 25), star Indian spinner Kuldeep Yadav bagged a hat-trick. The 27-year-old left-arm chinaman bowler got rid of Logan van Beek, Joe Walker and Jacob Duffy on the last three deliveries of the 47th over to achieve the historic milestone.
He first got rid of van Beek, who was caught by Prithvi Shaw for four runs, and then, on the next delivery, sent Walker packing for a golden duck. The catch was completed by wicketkeeper Sanju Samson, who is also leading the side in the ongoing home series. To complete his hat-trick, Kuldeep trapped Duffy in front of the wickets on the final ball of the over as well as his spell.
In total, he got rid of four batters and returned with figures of 10-0-51-4.
As he completed his hat-trick, fans took to social media to reserve praise for the star cricketer and laud his brilliant show.
It was not the first time Kuldeep dismissed three batters on consecutive balls. In fact, he has two hat-tricks to his name while playing for India in ODIs. His first hat-trick was against Australia at Eden Gardens in 2017 and the second was against the West Indies in Visakhapatnam in 2019. Chetan Sharma was the first Indian bowler to take a hat-trick in ODIs for India during the 1987 World Cup match against New Zealand, and Mohammed Shami matched that feat against Afghanistan during the 2019 ODI World Cup. But no one apart from Kuldeep has taken more than one hat-trick for India in ODIs.
And that’s not all; he even took a hat-trick for India at the U-19 level as well. At the ICC U-19 World Cup in 2014, he achieved the milestone against Scotland.
Thanks to Kuldeep’s superb show, India A managed to fold New Zealand A for 219 runs only. It was another below par show by the visitors. They managed 167 runs in the first game, which was easily chased by India in 31.5 overs for the loss of seven wickets, and another disappointing show has now put them on the brink of losing the white-ball series as well.
Apart from Kuldeep, Rishi Dhawan and Rahul Chahar picked up two wickets each for the India A team.
