My First Cricket Hat-trick

Jun 23, 2020 | Cricket | 0 comments

When vacation arrives, everyone returns home for festivals; that’s when local cricket tournaments in Nepal start to kick off. Like the years before, we, brothers, friends, and colleges, decided to participate in the cricket tournament. We ourselves had no potential to win the tournament on our own. So, we decided to seek help from a few academy cricketers. After this boost, we were ready and pumped up. But the imported players were our trump card; we were there to support them.

In the second innings of our opening match in the tournament, “प्रथम जागौँ युवा खुल्ला क्रिकेट कप-२०७५.” We were on course for a comfortable victory, having the opposition team 7 wickets down and requiring 30 odd runs off the final over. That’s when I was handed the ball. Boys wanted me to have a fair share on the victory bowling the last over apart from fielding.

Even though I hadn’t bowled for a good part of a year, I was pretty confident of defending that huge total. BTW who won’t when its 30+ runs an over.

Bowling the Final Over

Here I was, running in to bowl my filthy right arm medium over the wicket. Trying to bowl full and straight, if Incase the batsman missed, I could grab a bonus wicket or two. With my dodgy run-up and action, I happened to bowl a back-of-the-length ball. Touch short and outside off but not short enough and wide enough to cut, which was the exact mistake batsman made, handing a simple catch to point. I was sure about Rohan’s catch by Rohan cause the boys were so clinical that day, grasping every opportunity that came by. Yea talking about the celebration, I didn’t celebrate that much apart from few high fives with the boys. I knew I wasn’t as good as I was back then and was in the team to mentor like stuff rather than being a commandable player.

Two in Two !!!!!

Okay, on to the next ball, in came the new batsman at the crease. The leg-side field was already densely packed for my genuinely slow pace. I ran to bowl a similar type of delivery, back of the length just outside off. Why change the plan when it’s working right for you, isn’t it? This time the batsman mistimed a pull and got no way near the mid of the bat. A spooning catch to mid-wicket, safely grabbed with bucket-shaped hand by Subash as batsman crossed over. Not the greatest of bowls to take wickets, but who cares. Two wickets in two balls. Really? Lucky Right? Yea Maybe.

Hat-trick within a touching distance

In came eight fielders in the 30-yard circle cause, surprisingly, I was on a hat-trick. Boys were pumped up and cheering up for the hat-trick. I was within a touching distance of a hat-trick but with not so good deliveries. Deep down, I felt the situation I was in was with luck, but what lied ahead couldn’t be archived purely by luck. So, I thought of bowling my best ball—a full, fast, and straight at the stumps. But, what If I end up bowling rubbish ball and let down mine anticipated mates. Negatives did arise in my mind.

Shall I continue to bowl the ball that’s has landed to this feat, or shall I go for the full fast and straight manta? I was quite nervous at that moment. I had my heart pounding such that I would’ve given the wrong answer if you had asked what my name was. Damn!! I was that nervous. It probably was because I had zero expectations of myself bowling the last over to complete the formality of the win. But incredibly, I was within a touching distance of an extraordinary feat.

My First Cricket Hat-trick

My mates were cheering and weren’t expecting anything less than a wicket. I took a deep breath at the start of my run-up. I ran onto bowl the hat-trick ball, trying to bowl at least a good ball if it wasn’t a wicket-taking ball. But just in contrary to that, I bowled a low full-toss, asking to be belted for a boundary. As soon as I released the ball, it didn’t feel right, and I knew I had bottled it. The sound of the bat was crisp. But the keeper was shouting ‘Caaatchhh”. As a natural reaction, I looked at the ball. It looked like a certain boundary. The only fielder in the leg-side boundary, who happened to be one of few imported players, ran for it. He ran about 25 meters and took a well-judged catch just a few centimeters from the boundary line.

Thus, I grabbed an improbable hat-trick, the first of my career and probably the last as well. More importantly, we were off to a winning start, and we were deemed one of the favorites.

Re-view as a whole

At the death, sometimes you get smoked, but sometimes you do tend to get those wickets. And it was one of those days when everything I touched turned to gold. We reached the Final and finished as Runners Up in the tournament, losing the final by the slimmest of margin in 1 wicket. We had lots of fun and unforgettable countless memories. For me, that’s the main reason why we play this beautiful game of Cricket.

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