Sami bowls into record books

Mohammad Ramis Shah

22-Mar-2002

On 9 March 2002, during 3rd day's play in the 2nd Asian Test Championship Final between Pakistan and Sri Lanka at Lahore's Gaddafi Stadium, Mohammad Sami, playing in only his 3rd Test, became the third Pakistani after Wasim Akram and Abdul Razzaq and 27th bowler overall, to claim the 30th hat-trick in Test cricket. The right arm fast bowler grabbed the last three Sri Lankan wickets. He dismissed Buddhika Fernando, Nuwan Zoysa, both leg before and Muttiah Muralitharan, bowled off consecutive deliveries in his 37th over.

With this hat-trick Sami also joined Wasim Akram as the only two bowlers with hat-tricks in both forms of the game so far. Wasim Akram, has two hat-tricks in Test cricket and he same number in LOIs. While Sami had a hat-trick in the 2nd ODI against West Indies at Sharjah on 15 February 2002.

The current list includes nine Englishmen, eight Australians, three West Indians, three Pakistanis and one bowler each from South Africa, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and India. No bowlers from Zimbabwe and Bangladesh have claimed a hat-trick in Test matches so far.

It was 30th hat-trick in Tests. Australia's Thomas James Matthews and Hugh Trumble along with Pakistan's Wasim Akram are the only bowlers to have performed this feat twice.

The first bowler to perform a hat-trick in Test cricket was Australian, Frederick Robert Spofforth who dismissed three in a row in his six for 48 against England at Melbourne in 1878-79. Spofforth's victims were V Royle, F Mackinnon and T Emmett.

At 21 years and 13 days, Mohammed Sami is the third youngest player after Pakistan's Abdul Razzaq to achieve this feat. Abdul Razzaq who was 20 years and 201 days old when he took three wickets in a row against Sri Lanka at Galle on 21 June 2000 and India's Harbhajan Singh who was 20 years and 251 days old when he achieved the same against Australia at Calcutta on 11 March 2000.

Hattrick heroes in Test cricket

Hattrick hero	For	Vs	Inns	Test	Venue	Series	Mode of dismissals
FR Spofforth	Aus	Eng	1st	1st	Melbourne	1878-79	2 bowled, 1 ct
W Bates	Eng	Aus	1st	2nd	Melbourne	1882-83	1 bowled, 1 ct & b, 1 ct
J Briggs	Eng	Aus	2nd	2nd	Sydney	1891-92	1 bowled, 1 ct, 1 lbw
GA Lohmann	Eng	SA	2nd	1st	Port Elizabeth	1895-96	2 bowled, 1 ct
JT Hearne	Eng	Aus	2nd	3rd	Leeds	1899	1 bowled, 2 ct
H Trumble	Aus	Eng	2nd	2nd	Melbourne	1901-02	1 ct & b, 2 ct
H Trumble	Aus	Eng	2nd	5th	Melbourne	1903-04	1 ct & b, 1 ct, 1 lbw
TJ Matthews	Aus	SA	1st	1st	Manchester	1912	1 bowled, 2 lbw
TJ Matthews	Aus	SA	2nd	1st	Manchester	1912	1 bowled, 2 ct & b
MJC Allom	Eng	NZ	1st	1st	Christchurch	1929-30	1 lbw, 1 ct, 1 bowled
TWJ Goddard	Eng	SA	1st	1st	Johannesburg	1938-39	1 ct & b, 1 st, 1 bowled
PJ Loader	Eng	WI	1st	4th	Leeds	1957	2 bowled, 1 ct
LF Kline	Aus	SA	2nd	2nd	Cape Town	1957-58	2 ct, 1 lbw
WW Hall	WI	Pak	1st	3rd	Lahore (LG)	1958-59	1 lbw, 1 ct, 1 bowled
GM Griffin	SA	Eng	1st	2nd	Lord's	1960	1 ct, 2 bowled
LR Gibbs	WI	Aus	1st	4th	Adelaide	1960-61	1 lbw, 1 ct, 1 bowled
PJ Petherick	NZ	Pak	1st	1st	Lahore (Gd)	1976-77	1 ct & b, 2 ct
CA Walsh	WI	Aus	1st	1st	Brisbane	1988-89	2 ct, 1 lbw
MG Hughes	Aus	WI	1st	2nd	Perth	1988-89	2 ct, 1 lbw
DW Fleming	Aus	Pak	2nd	2nd	Rawalpindi	1994-95	2 ct, 1 lbw
SK Warne	Aus	Eng	2nd	2nd	Melbourne	1994-95	1 lbw, 2 ct
DG Cork	Eng	WI	2nd	4th	Manchester	1995	1 bowled, 2 lbw
D Gough	Eng	Aus	1st	5th	Sydney	1998-99	1 ct, 2 bowled
Wasim Akram	Pak	SL	1st	1st	Lahore (Gd)	1998-99	1 ct, 2 bowled
Wasim Akram	Pak	SL	2nd	1st	Dhaka	1998-99	2 ct, 1 bowled
DNT Zoysa	SL	Zim	1st	2nd	Harare	1999-00	2 lbw, 1 ct
Abdur Razzaq	Pak	SL	1st	2nd	Galle	1999-00	1 ct, 2 lbw
GD McGrath	Aus	WI	1st	2nd	Perth	2000-01	3 ct
Harbhajan Singh	Ind	Aus	1st	2nd	Kolkata	2000-01	2 lbw, 1 ct
Muhammad Sami	Pak	SL	1st	Only	Lahore	2001-02	2 lbw, 1 bowled

Notes:

No bowler from Zimbabwe or Bangladesh has achieved this feat. A total of eleven hat-tricks have taken place in Australia (five in Melbourne, two in Sydney and Perth and one each in Adelaide and Brisbane), followed by six in England (three in Manchester, two in Leeds and one at Lord's), five in Pakistan (four in Lahore and one at Rawalpindi), three in South Africa (one each at Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Cape Town) and finally one in New Zealand (at Christchurch), one at a neutral venue in Bangladesh (Dhaka), one in Sri Lanka (Galle), one in Zimbabwe (Harare) and one in India (Kolkata).

Lahore has the unique distinction with four separate hat-tricks at two different grounds - one at the Lawrence Gardens and three at the Gaddafi Stadium.

Allom, Petherick and Fleming did so on their Test debut. Allom, in fact took four wickets in 5 balls. Trumble (his 2nd hat-trick) and Griffin did so in their last Tests. Trumble, Matthews and Wasim Akram are the only bowlers to do so on two occasions. Matthews did so in the same match, but in separate innings in the same afternoon. Goddard was the oldest at 38 years and 87 days. Wasim Akram is the only Test captain to do so. Zoysa became the first bowler to take a hat-trick off his first three balls in a Test match. The Walsh and Hughes hat-tricks were spread over two innings. Allom, Petherick and Fleming did the hat-trick on debut.

Petherick has the most expensive innings analysis of somebody doing the hat-trick (3 for 103). Largest total to include a hat-trick is 537 by Pakistan at Rawalpindi in 1994-95. Least number of career Test wickets for a bowler doing a hattrick are 8 by Griffin.

All data updated to 20.03.2002

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