Why Kagiso Rabada missing a hat-trick is a surprise in IPL?

Kagiso Rabada got 3 wickets of four balls but missed a hat-trick. Image: BCCI, iplt20.com

Three wickets in four balls but no hat-trick! Had the Dubai stadium been packed, a collective sigh would have echoed through the arena when Delhi Capitals' pacer Kagiso Rabada sent Isuru Udana packing, dealing another blow to a farce of a chase by Royal Challengers Bangalore in their Indian Premier League 2020 clash on October 5.

In his previous over, the South African bowler had dismissed Washington Sundar in the last ball. When he returned for the 18th over, Rabada dismissed Shivam Dube on the very first ball. But Navdeep Saini denied him a hat-trick and a place in the IPL hat-trick book as he survived a mean bouncer.

Rabada struck back in the very next ball, dismissing Udana to bag his third wicket inside four balls.

Also read: IPL DC vs RCB Match Report: Delhi specialists’ all-round effort takes them to the top in a royal way

Going by records, IPL is the easiest format and tournament to get a hat-trick in, though Rabada missed it despite a rich four-wicket haul from the game that his team won easily. He also reclaimed the purple cap, reserved for the highest wicket-taker of the tournament.

Earlier this season, RCB’s Yuzvendra Chahal also missed a hat-trick. In a format dominated by batsmen, hat-tricks, a rare feat for a bowler, are oddly more frequent in IPL than any other tournament or format.

In 12 IPL’s seasons, only two years—2015 and 2018—have gone without a bowler getting three batsmen out in a row. This season has had two close brushes and with the tournament not even halfway through, there is a lot to play for.

Cricket fans tend not to pay enough attention to bowling records, especially in IPL. Traditionally, cricket has given special recognition to the hat-trick; even in the shortest format, it is seen as a great achievement. But then there has been a surfeit of hat-tricks in the IPL which may have diminished its novelty value. At the end of the 12th season, there had already been 19 hat-tricks.

For 19 hat-tricks, Test cricket had to wait almost 110 years and One Day Internationals (ODIs) almost 22 years. The latest format, T20 internationals, is yet to get there since there have been only 13 hat-tricks in as many years.

In IPL, it is the lack of hat-tricks that surprises not the other way round. Amit Mishra—in 2008 and 2010—and Yuvraj Singh have double hat-tricks in IPL. Yuvraj’s one better—both his hat-tricks came in a single edition in 2009 when South Africa hosted the tournament.

In 2014, Rajasthan Royals’ Pravin Tambe’s got the “rarest-of-the-rare” hat-trick. Usually, it takes three consecutive balls to take three wickets. Tambe did it in two balls as one of his victims was stumped on a wide ball.

But here again, Tambe is not alone. Udana achieved something similar while appearing for Wayamba against Central Districts at Port Elizabeth, South Africa, in the Champions League Twenty20 in 2010.

Lakshmipathy Balaji was the first bowler to take an IPL hat-trick in 2008 against Kings XI Punjab. The first season of IPL saw two more hat-tricks, from Mishra who was part of the then Delhi Daredevils, and Chennai Super Kings’ Makhaya Ntini. In 2009, again there was a hat-trick of hat-tricks, a feat that has since not been repeated.

The 2017 edition had its share of unique hat-tricks as well. Andrew Tye of Gujarat Lions and Samuel Badree of Royal Challengers Bangalore got a hat-trick on the same day in their respective games on April 14.

How the IPL 2020 figures in the hat-trick book remains to be seen.

(Vimal Kumar is a senior sports journalist who has covered multiple cricket world cups and Rio Olympics in the last two decades. Vimal is also the author of Sachin: Cricketer Of The Century and The Cricket Fanatic’s Essential Guide.)

Follow Moneycontrol’s full coverage of IPL 2020 here