Jaipur, Nov 02: Mohammed Mudasir took the Ranji Trophy 2018-19 season’s first hat-trick on day two of his side’s game against Rajasthan in Jaipur.
The 30-year-old cricketer from Srinagar first broke a century partnership between Chetan Bist and Ashok Menaria by having the latter caught on 59 in the 97th over of the Rajasthan first innings at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium.
Rajasthan had been going strong on 329 for 3 when Mudasir struck. It was in his next over, however, that Rajasthan collapsed spectacularly to 330 for 8. With the second ball of the 99th over, Mudasir trapped Bist leg-before on 159. The next three balls all produced wickets, all of them leg-before, making it an incredible four wickets in four deliveries.
Tajinder Singh, Rahul Chahar and Tanvir Mashart Ul-Haq all bagged golden ducks, giving Mudasir his fifth five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.
Mudasir is no stranger to taking hat-tricks. He took one in the Vijay Hazare Trophy – the state one-day tournament – in February 2017 as well, but J&K lost a close match to Chhattisgarh in Kolkata by four runs. His hat-trick dismissals in that game were similar too: two lbws and one bowled.
In the Jaipur game, Rajasthan staged a mini-recovery of sorts with Rajesh Bishnoi and Aniket Choudhary adding 48 for the ninth wicket before the side was dismissed for 379. From a position of 329 for 3, that would still count as a pretty severe collapse. Mudasir finished with figures of 29-6-90-5.
