Cricket Hat-Trick Explained

What Is a Hat-Trick?

A hat-trick in cricket occurs when a bowler takes three wickets on three consecutive deliveries. The three deliveries can span two different overs or even two different innings — the requirement is only that they are three consecutive legal deliveries by the same bowler, each resulting in a dismissal. The term originated in the 19th century when a bowler who achieved the feat was awarded a top hat by his club.

How Often Hat-Tricks Occur

In Test cricket, fewer than 50 hat-tricks have occurred in history. In ODI cricket they are slightly more common because lower-order batters are less technically sound. In T20 cricket, hat-tricks occur most regularly because aggressive batting produces more caught dismissals and the over compression creates scenarios where three wickets in a row is possible on a short-pitched attack that generates top edges.

Famous Hat-Tricks

• Peter Siddle — Test hat-trick on his birthday against England at the Gabba, 2010
• Mohammad Shami — against Afghanistan in the 2019 Cricket World Cup
• Jasprit Bumrah — T20I hat-trick against West Indies in 2019
• Lasith Malinga — multiple T20 hat-tricks and the first player to take two ODI hat-tricks
• Pakistan's Wasim Akram — two Test hat-tricks in the same match (1999 World Cup semi-final)

Cross-Innings Hat-Tricks

The most unusual hat-tricks occur across an innings break. If a bowler takes the last wicket of one innings and then takes the first two wickets of the next innings, they have completed a hat-trick across the gap. These are the rarest and most surprising hat-tricks because spectators and players may not realise the context until the third wicket falls. The hat-trick ball in the new innings is typically acknowledged by the umpires before the delivery.