Chennai: On this day back in 2008, Indian pacer Lakshmipathy Balaji took the first-ever hat-trick in the history of the Indian Premier League. The pacer achieved this accomplishment during his side's IPL 2008 match against Kings XI Punjab (now known as Punjab Kings).
In that match, during the final over of Punjab's run chase of 182 runs, Balaji had dismissed Irfan Pathan, Piyush Chawla and VRV Singh. CSK went on to win the match by 18 runs. Balaji ended with figures of 5/24, for which he was given the 'Man of the Match' award. Balaji was CSK's key bowler that season, in which CSK ended as runners-up after losing to Rajasthan Royals. He ended up with 11 wickets in nine matches. Since that day, this feat was repeated 21 more times.
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Notably, Afghanistan and Gujarat Titans spinner Rashid Khan clinched the first hat-trick of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 earlier in April. The Afghan T20 superstar accomplished this in his side's match against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad. With KKR needing 50 runs in the final four overs, Rashid arrived in the 17th over. He made an immediate impact by removing dangerman Andre Russell (1), Sunil Narine (0) and Shardul Thakur (0) on the first three balls of the over, reducing KKR from 155/4 to 155/7 in a matter of minutes. But KKR went on to win the match after Rinku Singh hit Yash Dayal for five successive sixes in the final over.
He is also the first-ever Afghanistan player to take a hat-trick in IPL history. He is the 18th bowler to take a hat-trick in the league's history. Since the commencement of the league, stars like Balaji, Rohit Sharma, Yuvraj Singh, Rashid, Yuzvendra Chahal, Harshal Patel, Sam Curran. Shreyas Gopal, Sunil Narine, Andrew Tye, Jaydev Unadkat, Axar Patel, Shane Watson and Amit Mishra are some of the players to have taken an IPL hat-trick. Amit Mishra has three hat tricks to his name in IPL, most by any bowler in the league's history. (ANI)
