On Monday (27th January), the first-class debutant Ravi Yadav created history as he took a hat-trick and that too in the very first over of his career.
The group stage of 2019/20 Ranji Trophy is currently in the Round Seven while Monday was the day one. It was an eventful day during the Group B match between Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh at Indore. After winning the toss, Uttar Pradesh decided to field first. After they bowled out Madhya Pradesh for 230 runs when they were moving towards the perfect ending for the day, the 28-year-old left-arm medium-pacer Ravi Yadav stunned everyone.
Making his first-class debut, Ravi Yadav first time took the ball in the second-last over of the day. On the third, fourth and fifth balls of that over, Yadav dismissed three UP batsmen and completed his hat-trick. He dismissed opener Aryan Juyal (13), captain Ankit Rajpoot (0) and Sameer Rizvi (0). While Juyal was caught behind, Rajpoot and Rizvi were bowled. Yadav finished the day with the bowling figures of 1-0-2-3 while Madhya Pradesh ended the day on 22/3.
No other bowler achieved Ravi Yadav’s feat
Ravi Yadav became the first bowler in first-class cricket history to claim a hat-trick in the first over of his debutant match. Former South African domestic cricketer Ricey Phillips (Border) was the only other cricketer to claim a hat-trick in the first over of his first-class cricket career, but it was not in his debutant match. It was his fifth first-class match (against Eastern Province at Port Elizabeth in 1939-40) where the leg-spinner bowled for the first time and completed a hat-trick in his first over.
Ravi Yadav became the eighth Indian bowler to claim a hat-trick in the first-class debut. The other seven Indian bowlers in this list are Vasant Ranjane, Joginder Singh Rao, Mehboodullah, Salil Ankola, Javagal Srinath, Saradindu Mukherjee and Abhimanyu Mithun. However, Ravi Yadav has marked his name in a special way which no one did earlier.