What is a Hat-Trick in Cricket?

What is a hat-trick in cricket?

A hat-trick in cricket occurs when a bowler takes three wickets with three consecutive legal deliveries — no wide or no-ball can intervene between the wickets. If a bowler takes wickets with the last ball of one over and the first two of the next, that counts. If the hat-trick spans the end of one innings and the start of another (or even a different match in the case of some domestic competitions), the hat-trick is still valid provided the wickets are on consecutive deliveries with no illegal ball in between.

Origin of the term

The term 'hat-trick' originated in cricket in the 19th century. The story goes that a bowler who took three consecutive wickets was rewarded with a new hat by their club. The term then migrated to other sports (football, ice hockey, etc.) but cricket can claim origin. The first recorded hat-trick in first-class cricket was H.H. Stephenson for Surrey in 1858.

Can a hat-trick span innings or matches?

In Test cricket, a hat-trick can legally span two innings — if a bowler takes two wickets at the end of the first innings and then takes a wicket with the first ball of the second innings, it counts. This has happened several times in Test history. Whether a hat-trick can span across separate matches depends on the competition's rules; in most cases, hat-tricks are only recognised within a single match.

Hat-trick records

Lasith Malinga of Sri Lanka holds the record for most hat-tricks in international cricket — he is the only bowler to take four wickets in four consecutive balls in international cricket, which he did against South Africa in the 2007 ICC World Cup. In Test cricket, Pakistan's Wasim Akram took two hat-tricks — one against Sri Lanka and one against Zimbabwe. Australia's Peter Siddle famously took a Test hat-trick on his birthday against England in the 2010–11 Ashes. Women's cricket has seen several hat-tricks in T20I cricket, including from Shabnim Ismail and Deepti Sharma.