Hat tricks in cricket are equivalent to a century for bowlers. These hat tricks show the true strength of a bowler, and in the Indian Premier League, there are only a handful of bowlers who have achieved this spectacular feat. Even the most recent IPL cricket match news shall read about Harshal Patel’s hat trick for the Royal Challengers Bangalore against the Mumbai Indians. Nonetheless, in this article is a list of the bowlers who have etched their name in the golden book of records by taking a hat trick in IPL history.
The first-ever hat trick in the Indian Premier League was taken by Chennai Super Kings bowler Lakshmipathy Balaji. This hat trick came in the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League. He took the hat trick against the Kings XI Punjab and stunned viewers and opposition players alike.
In the inaugural season of the Indian Premier League, two more hat tricks are worthy of mention. One was by the South African fast bowler Makhaya Ntini when he played for the Chennai Super Kings and decimated the Kolkata Knight Riders. However, the key hat trick that season was by bowler Amit Mishra. The spinner claimed his first hat trick in the Indian Premier League; this came against the Deccan Chargers while he represented the Delhi Daredevils. This is a milestone in the world of Indian Premier League hat tricks as the bowler has gone on to claim a hat trick not just once or twice but thrice in his illustrious career so far.
The year 2009 was an eventful year for the Indian Premier League as the season was hosted in South Africa. However, in terms of hat tricks, cricket today is incomplete without mentioning two players. These players are predominantly renowned for their batting, but claimed hat tricks while bowling. The first of the two players is Rohit Sharma, who back then represented the Deccan Chargers and took a hat trick against the Mumbai Indians, which ironically is the side that he later became a part of and captained to five titles.
The second player who took a hat trick in 2009 was Yuvraj Singh, and he managed not just one but two hat tricks that year. Singh, who represented the Kings XI Punjab, managed to terrorize the Royal Challengers Bangalore and Deccan Chargers batsmen.
The next three years of the Indian Premier League saw only one hat trick being taken in each year. The 2010 edition saw Indian bowler Praveen Kumar take a hat trick against the Rajasthan Royals. The 2011 edition saw Amit Mishra claim his second Indian Premier League hat trick, which came against the Kings XI Punjab. The 2012 edition saw bowler Ajit Chandila take a hat trick against the Pune Warriors India in a crucial playoff game.
In 2013, every IPL update saw the emergence of a new bowling superstar who is synonymous with cricket today. Mystery spinner Sunil Narine from the Caribbean took the league by storm when he took a hat trick for the Kolkata Knight Riders against the Kings XI Punjab. On the other hand, veteran hat trick king Amit Mishra took his third and final hat trick in the IPL.
The year 2014 was also a memorable year in the Indian Premier League and saw two hat tricks. The first was taken by leg spinner Pravin Tambe, and the other by Australian all-rounder Shane Watson. Both the players represented the Rajasthan Royals side.
It was 2015 that was the first year in the Indian Premier League witnessed a lack of hat tricks. However, 2018 and 2020 also joined the drought later in the future.
For 2016 we saw hat tricks return to the Indian Premier League, and Axar Patel was the player who ripped apart the Gujarat Lions.
The year 2017 was a milestone year for hat tricks as three hat tricks were taken by three different players for the first time in the history of the league. Bowlers Jaydev Unadkat, Andrew Tye, and Samuel Badree etched their names in history in IPL 2017.
In 2019 we saw two hat tricks, one from Kings XI Punjab player Sam Curran while the second was by Rajasthan Royals’ bowler Shreyas Gopal.
Ultimately, the most recent IPL cricket match hat trick was claimed by Harshal Patel in 2021. With his bowling, he helped the Royal Challengers Bangalore triumph over defending champions Mumbai Indians.
Will we see more hat tricks in 2022 in Indian Premier League cricket?
