The Indian T20 League has witnessed some outrageous incidents over the last dozen years. A proper summer festival, the gala event has kept fans glued to their television sets or running around for tickets in the March-May window. One of the many reasons could be unpredictable incidents like non-regulars bowlers taking hat-tricks. Over the years, these three regular batsmen and part-timers have snared hat-tricks in the Indian T20 League.
Shane Watson
While a well-acknowledged all-rounder in his heydays, Shane Watson hasn't been a regular bowler in the Indian T20 League and was mostly used as a change-up option. Watson has, however, been impressive whenever taking up the ball throughout his career.
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The former Australia vice-captain took a hat-trick while playing for Rajasthan in 2014 against Hyderabad. The Rajasthan skipper took the wicket of Shikhar Dhawan on the last ball of an over and in his next, went on to pick up two more - Moises Henriques and Karn Sharma - off the first two balls to complete a hat-trick.
Yuvraj Singh
A well-respected left-arm spinner aside from his primary skill of a middle-order batsman, Yuvraj took a hat-trick when playing for Punjab in the 2009 season game against Bangalore. Yuvraj took out Robin Uthappa and Jacques Kallis off the final two balls of an over and in his next, he had Mark Boucher dismissed off the first ball to complete a terrific hat-trick.
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Despite Yuvraj's brilliant hat-trick, Punjab went on to lose the game. In the same season, he went on to grab another hat-trick, this time against Hyderabad. Yuvraj was helping Punjab defend 135, and destroyed Hyderabad batting by dismissing Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds and Venugopal Rao off successive balls, spread across two overs to complete a hat-trick. This time, Punjab did win the game.
Rohit Sharma
A rather infrequent bowler, Hyderabad's Rohit Sharma picked up a rare hat-trick in the 2009 edition of the Indian T20 League when playing against his current franchise, Mumbai. Mumbai needed 43 runs to win when Rohit took up the ball in a surprise move and removed Abhishek Nayar, Harbhajan Singh and JP Duminy off successive balls to seal the game. The well-set JP Duminy was threatening to take the game away from Deccan at the point. Rohit won the Man of the Match for his brilliant performance with the ball.
Feature image courtesy: AFP / Saeed Khan
