On this day, 34 years ago, Chetan Sharma added a glorious chapter in the history of the World Cup and his career by taking the first hat-trick in the 1987 World Cup. The right-arm pacer achieved the feat during India’s last group stage match against New Zealand at Nagpur on October 31, 1987. Interestingly, it was also the first hat-trick by an Indian bowler at the world level in any format.
Batting first, the Jeff Crowe-led New Zealand team got off to a good start as they scored 182 runs in 41 overs for the loss of five wickets and were hoping to post a total of 240-plus. At this time, the Kiwi team seemed to have the upper hand in the match as Ken Rutherford got himself at the crease. However, in the very next over of the match, Chetan bowled one of the most memorable overs of his career to reduce New Zealand from 182/5 to 182/8.
Chetan Sharma created history #this day in 1987 when he first picked up @cricketworldcup Hat-trick against New Zealand
But he was so close to making it to the India team due to a finger injury!
️ Watch as he relishes the magic. pic.twitter.com/tT0vP5iiDf
— ICC (@ICC) October 31, 2020
This was Chetan’s sixth over of the match and he had failed to impress anyone with his performance so far. However, he was known to throw some extraordinary balls here and there. But, no one had any idea of what happened next in the match.
Chetan bowls an in-cutter to Rutherford after bowling three dot balls. The Kiwi cricketer failed to defend himself against the ball and it soon hit his stumps, forcing him to go back to the stands. On his next ball, Sharma dismissed Ian Smith on a similar delivery. Chetan and captain Kapil Dev had a brief discussion when they were preparing to face the last ball of the even over.
Chetan bowled the last ball a bit fuller but the result was similar to the last two balls as it hit the stumps of Ewen Chatfield, and in the process the Indian seamer etched his name in the history of the game.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=/5FDKI7xeIxY
New Zealand’s team was reduced to 221 runs for the loss of nine wickets. In reply, India won the match by nine wickets in 32.1 overs, with Sunil Gavaskar being awarded the man of the match for his winning ton.
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