A hat trick in cricket is when a bowler takes three wickets with three balls in a row. The balls can span two different overs, or even two different innings, but they must all come from the same bowler in the same match.
It is one of the rarest feats in the sport, treasured because it takes luck as well as skill. Here is exactly how it works, how rare it really is, and the strange ways it has happened.
Why Is It Called a Hat Trick?
The phrase dates back to 1858. English bowler H.H. Stephenson took three wickets in three balls, playing for an All-England side against a Hallam team in Sheffield.
His grateful teammates and the crowd passed a hat around the ground. The money raised was used to buy him an actual hat as a reward.
The word trick was added later, comparing the feat to a magician pulling something remarkable out of a hat.
Most fans assume the phrase started in football, since goal-scoring hat tricks are so common there. In fact, it went the other way: cricket had the term first, and football borrowed it decades later.
How a Hat Trick Actually Works:
Only dismissals credited to the bowler count. That means bowled, caught, LBW, and stumped all qualify. A run out does not, since no bowler earns credit for that wicket.
The three balls do not need to fall in the same over. A wicket with the last ball of one over, then the first two of the next, still counts, as long as no other bowler steps in between.
Just How Rare Is a Hat Trick?
Genuinely rare, and the numbers prove it. Across every major format, only a small handful of bowlers have ever managed one.
Format | Hat tricks recorded |
|---|---|
Test cricket | 49, in over 2,000 matches |
ODIs | 52, in over 4,800 matches |
T20 Internationals | 92, in over 4,000 matches |
Put simply, even in the shortest format, a hat trick still shows up in barely more than 2 percent of matches.
Bowling in club cricket, I have taken two wickets in two balls more than once. Each time, the whole team seemed to hold its breath for the next delivery. That is as close as most bowlers ever get.
What Is a Double Hat Trick?
A double hat trick is four wickets in four balls in a row, not six wickets in six balls as many fans assume.
The logic is simple. Those four dismissals actually contain two hat tricks that overlap: balls one through three, and balls two through four. That is why cricket calls it a double, not something bigger.
The Strangest Hat Tricks in History:
Some hat tricks have come in genuinely bizarre fashion. Australia's Merv Hughes once took his three wickets across three separate overs at the WACA in 1988. One wicket ended the West Indies' first innings, then two more started their second.
West Indies quick Courtney Walsh also famously took a hat trick split across two different innings.
Australia's Peter Siddle pulled off the ultimate present to himself, taking a Test hat trick against England in 2010 on his own birthday.
India's Chetan Sharma made history too. His 1987 hat trick was the first ever at a Cricket World Cup.
Who Holds the Record for Most Hat Tricks?
The record depends on which format you look at. Here is the top name in each.
Format | Record holder | Hat tricks |
|---|---|---|
Test | Four-way tie | 2 each |
ODI | Lasith Malinga | 3 |
T20I | Lasith Malinga | 2 |
All formats combined | Lasith Malinga | 5 |
Lasith Malinga is the outright record holder, with five hat tricks across his career, three in ODIs and two in T20Is. Wasim Akram sits just behind him with four, split evenly between Tests and ODIs.
In Test cricket alone, four players share the record with two each: Hugh Trumble, Jimmy Matthews, Wasim Akram, and Stuart Broad.
Conclusion:
A hat trick rewards a bowler for three wickets in three balls, however the sequence unfolds. Rare in every format and treasured in all of them, it remains one of the game's purest moments of magic.
(FAQs):
Q1: Can a hat trick happen across two different matches?
A: No. All three wickets must come in the same match. A bowler who takes two wickets with the last two balls of one game gets no credit if they take a third at the start of the next.
Q2: Who took the first hat trick in T20 internationals?
A: Australia's Brett Lee, against Bangladesh in Cape Town in September 2007, the first hat trick recorded in the format.
Q3: Can a team, rather than one bowler, take a hat trick?
A: Informally, yes. A team hat trick describes three wickets in three balls by any combination of bowlers, though only an individual bowler's own three-in-three counts as an official hat trick.
Q4: Does the batter have to be out for the same reason each time?
A: No. A hat trick can mix any credited dismissals, so a bowler might take one wicket bowled, one caught, and one LBW and still have it count.
Q5: How old was the youngest bowler to take a Test hat trick?
A: Bangladesh's leg spinner Alok Kapali, who was just 19 years and 240 days old when he achieved the feat.
