In the last few days, the right-arm pacer Deepak Chahar has taken all the attention in Indian cricket. After a superb dominant bowling performance in the Nagpur T20I against Bangladesh on last Sunday (10th November), Chahar continued the same rhythm in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy match on Tuesday (12th November). Even Chahar emulated his Nagpur T20I hat-trick on Tuesday afternoon by taking three wickets in three consecutive legal deliveries. But there was a little confusion on Tuesday as can we say the latest achievement was also his official T20 hat-trick.
On last Sunday, the 27-year-old Deepak Chahar became the first Indian male bowler to claim a T20I hat-trick. While all other Indian bowlers were struggling with the wet ball against the visiting side Bangladesh, Chahar dominated with the ball in hand.
In that game, Chahar completed his hat-trick in spare of two overs after dismissing Shafiul Islam (17.6 overs), Mustafizur Rahman (19.1 overs) and Aminul Islam (19.2 overs) in his three successive deliveries. He finished that game with the bowling figures of 3.2-0-7-6 which is now the best bowling figures in T20I history.
In less than 48 hours of that match, Deepak Chahar almost emulated the same bowling performance on Tuesday afternoon. This time Chahar led his domestic side Rajasthan in the Group A match of Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2019/20 against Vidarbha.
Deepak Chahar took three wickets in three consecutive legal deliveries against Vidarbha but also conceded a wide ball in between that moment
In that rain-interrupted 13-over game, Deepak Chahar claimed the bowling figures of 3-0-18-4 as they restricted Vidarbha to 99/9 (13 overs). He took all the four wickets in the 13th over of that innings. After dismissing Rushabh Rathod (3) on the first ball of that over, Chahar dismissed Darshan Nalkande (0), Shrikant Wagh (13) and Akshay Wadkar (0) in the last three legal deliveries of that over. However, in between the dismissals of Nalkande and Wagh, Chahar conceded a wide ball.
On the official BCCI Domestic twitter account, that achievement was called the hat-trick.
However, there is still confusion whether we can officially call it as a hat-trick or not.
If a bowler takes three wickets in his/her three consecutive deliveries of a match, only then it is officially called as the hat-trick. Before talking about whether Deepak Chahar’s latest achievement was a hat-trick or not, we are just looking whether the similar incident happened ever in international cricket or not.
UAE medium-fast bowler Zahoor Khan once managed a similar achievement in an ODI
It was an ODI match between UAE and Ireland at ICCA Dubai on 2nd March 2017 when the UAE medium-pacer Zahoor Khan achieved a similar feat. In the 46th over of the first innings, Zahoor Khan dismissed the Irish batsmen Gary Wilson, William Porterfield and Andy McBrine in the three successive legal deliveries. However, in between the dismissals of Porterfield and McBrine, Zahoor conceded a wide ball. As a result of that wide ball, his achievement was not recorded as a hat-trick.
So, according to this rule, Deepak Chahar’s latest achievement against Vidarbha wasn’t an official hat-trick. Though that wide wasn’t a legal delivery, Chahar actually took three wickets in his four deliveries. But one thing is sure and that is both have the same value without any doubt.