Five famous hat-tricks in international cricket

4. Chaminda Vaas (Sri Lanka v/s Bangladesh, 2003 World Cup)

Ask any Bangladesh player from the 2003 World Cup squad about Chaminda Vaas and they will respond with a vicious glare. For them, playing the Lankan spearhead’s searing deliveries at Pietermaritzburg was much more difficult than pronouncing his full name, but they would have preferred doing the latter to the former any day.

The veteran left-arm seamer, who had once entertained hopes of becoming a priest, instead played the Prince of Darkness to the hilt as he instigated a collapse within no time. Hannan Sarkar played all over a late in-dipper that rattled his timber without opening his account.

Mohammad Ashraful, finding himself in the middle sooner than expected, was the next to go – he popped a simple return catch to the bowler off a delivery that pitched short of a length. Two in two.

Ehsanul Haq, the next man, was surrounded by fielders as they closed in like vultures honing in on their prey. Understandably, Haq was quaking – whether from fear or nerves is still unclear. Vaas pitched the ball up, and the batsman just offered a tentative prod that took the outside edge of the bat and flew into Jayawardene’s hands at slip.

The hat-trick achieved, Vaas took off in celebration. Three wickets had fallen for no score, but the match was just three balls old. The experienced campaigner became the first cricketer to take a hat-trick off the first three legally-bowled deliveries in an ODI, and added three more to his kitty (one off the fifth ball of the game) as Sri Lanka romped to an easy win.