On Saturday, Sri Lanka mystery spinner Wanindu Hasaranga recorded a memorable hat-trick in the T20 World Cup 2021. Hasaranga clinched the perfect trio and became the first Sri Lankan male to do so in the T20 World Cup history.
The three successive scalps came in the important Super 12 Group 1 encounter against South Africa in Sharjah. Hasaranga’s trio featured the wickets of Aiden Markram, Temba Bavuma and Dwaine Pretorius.
The young spinner got Markram out bowled at the end of the 15th over of the South African run-chase and dismissed Bavuma and Pretorius at the start of the 17th.
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Hasaranga ended his day’s work with astonishing figures of 3/20 off his 4 overs, but even his excellent performance and hat-trick was not good enough for a Sri Lankan victory, as South Africa eventually reached the 143-run target with a ball to spare.
This was amazingly the second instance of a hat-trick being recorded in this edition of the T20 World Cup. Earlier in the competition, Ireland’s medium fast-bowler Curtis Campher took four wickets off successive balls in his team’s first preliminary round Group A match versus the Netherlands in Abu Dhabi.
Curtis and now Hasaranga have joined the list which former Australian quick Brett Lee leads. Lee was the first man to record a hat-trick in the T20 World Cup when he achieved the feat against Bangladesh in a Super 8 encounter of the tournament’s inaugural edition in 2007 in Cape Town.
Hasaranga has been Sri Lanka’s star performer with the ball in the ongoing T20 World Cup. The 24-year-old has taken 11 scalps from his six outings so far while maintaining an eye-catching economy rate of just 5.27. The youngster is not just his team’s highest wicket-taker but is also their most economical bowler.
With his indecipherable mix of legbreak and googlies, Hasaranga has built a terrific T20I record to his name. The spinner has taken 47 wickets from his 31 outings while going for only 6.30 runs per over.
With their loss against South Africa, Sri Lanka have now slipped to fourth in their group points table with two losses and a solitary win. They’ll have to win their remaining games against England (Nov 1) and West Indies (Nov 4) to have a chance of securing the semi-final berth.
