A side shoot of a white-skinned man holding a champagne bottle in his hand
English cricketer Stuart Broad took hat-tricks against India at Trent Bridge in 2011, and against Sri Lanka at Headingley in 2014.

In the sport of cricket, a hat-trick is an occasion where a bowler takes three wickets in consecutive deliveries, dismissing three different batsmen. As of June 2021, this feat has only been achieved 46 times in more than two thousand Test matches,[1] the form of the sport in which national representative teams compete in matches of up to five days' duration. The first Test hat-trick was recorded on 2 January 1879, in only the third Test match to take place, by the Australian pace bowler Fred Spofforth, nicknamed "The Demon Bowler",[2] who dismissed three English batsmen with consecutive deliveries at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The most recent hat-trick was taken by South Africa's spin bowler Keshav Maharaj against the West Indies in June 2021 at Daren Sammy Cricket Ground in Gros Islet, Saint Lucia.[3]

A player has taken two hat-tricks in the same Test match only once. Playing for Australia against South Africa in the first match of the 1912 Triangular Tournament at Old Trafford, Manchester, England, leg spinner Jimmy Matthews took a hat-trick in South Africa's first and second innings, both taken on 28 May 1912. He completed both hat-tricks by dismissing South Africa's Tommy Ward.[4] Only three other cricketers have taken more than one Test hat-trick: Australian off spinner Hugh Trumble (two years apart, between the same teams at the same ground), Pakistani fast bowler Wasim Akram (just over a week apart, in consecutive matches between the same teams) and English fast bowler Stuart Broad. Three players have taken a hat-trick on their Test debut: English medium pace bowler Maurice Allom in 1930, New Zealand off-spinner Peter Petherick in 1976, and Australian pace bowler Damien Fleming in 1994.[5] Alok Kapali took the fewest total Test wickets of any player who recorded a hat-trick, taking only six wickets in his entire Test career.[5] Australian Peter Siddle is the only bowler to take a hat-trick on his birthday,[6] and Bangladeshi off spinner Sohag Gazi is the only player to score a century and take a hat-trick in the same Test match.[7]

Sri Lankan seamer Nuwan Zoysa became the first player in the history to take a hat-trick off the first three balls of a Test match. He achieved this against Zimbabwe at Harare in November 1999, dismissing Trevor Gripper, Murray Goodwin and Neil Johnson.[8] Indian pacer Irfan Pathan is the second bowler to take a hat-trick in the first over of a Test match, against Pakistan in 2006.[9]

Australian Merv Hughes is the only bowler to take a hat-trick where the wickets fell over three overs. He took a wicket (Curtly Ambrose) with the final ball of an over. With the first ball of his next over he took the final wicket of the West Indies innings (Patrick Patterson). He then removed the opener Gordon Greenidge with the first ball of the West Indies second innings.[10] Even more unusually, Hughes's two first-innings wickets were not consecutive, since Tim May had bowled an over himself in between Hughes's two deliveries, and took the wicket of Gus Logie.[11]

Two other hat-tricks have taken place over two innings rather than one, both taken by West Indians against Australia—Courtney Walsh and Jermaine Lawson. Walsh's was unusual since, like Hughes's (which was in the very next Test in the series), other wickets fell between the beginning and end of the hat-trick. After dismissing Dodemaide to finish off Australia's first innings, Walsh did not open the bowling in the Australian second innings, and in fact did not bowl until Australia had already lost two wickets and were 65 for 2: then with his first two deliveries he dismissed Wood and Veletta. Lawson, meanwhile, removed tail-enders Lee and MacGill in successive deliveries before Australia declared their first innings (at 605–9), and then took the wicket of Langer with the first delivery of Australia's second innings.[citation needed]

In the five-match series between a Rest of the World XI and England in 1970, a hat-trick was taken by South African Eddie Barlow in the fourth match, at Headingley (the last three of four wickets in five balls).[12] These matches were considered to be Tests at the time, but that status was later removed.[13]

Test hat-tricks

Australian bowler Fred Spofforth took the first hat-trick in Test cricket on 2 January 1879, in only the third Test match.
Billy Bates was the first player to take a hat-trick for England, four years after Spofforth achieved the feat.
Hugh Trumble is one of only four players to take more than one Test hat-trick, achieving the feat in 1902 and 1904.
Courtney Walsh's hat-trick in 1988 was spread across two innings. In Australia's first innings he dismissed the last two batsmen with consecutive deliveries and then took a third wicket with the first ball of the second innings.
Wasim Akram took two hat-tricks over a span of nine days in 1999.
When Peter Siddle took a hat-trick for Australia in 2010, his final victim was Stuart Broad. Nine months later Broad himself would be the next man to take a Test match hat-trick.
Key
Symbol Meaning
Hat-trick taken in debut match
Bowler The name of the bowler
For The team for which the bowler was playing
Against The team against which the bowler was playing
Inn. The innings (first or second) in which the hat-trick was achieved
Test The number of the Test within the overall series between the two teams
Dismissals The three players dismissed by the bowler
Venue The venue where the hat-trick was achieved
Date The date on which the hat-trick was achieved
Ref. Reference
List of Test cricket hat-tricks
No. Bowler For Against Inn. Test Dismissals Venue Date Ref.
1 Fred Spofforth  Australia  England 1 1/1 Australia MCG, Melbourne 2 January 1879 [14]
2 Billy Bates  England  Australia 1 2/3 Australia MCG, Melbourne 20 January 1883 [15]
3 Johnny Briggs  England  Australia 2 2/3 Australia Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney 2 February 1892 [16]
4 George Lohmann  England  South Africa 2 1/3 South Africa St. George's Park, Port Elizabeth 14 February 1896 [17]
5 Jack Hearne  England  Australia 2 3/5 England Headingley, Leeds 30 June 1899 [18]
6 Hugh Trumble  Australia  England 2 2/5 Australia MCG, Melbourne 4 January 1902 [19]
7 Hugh Trumble  Australia  England 2 5/5 Australia MCG, Melbourne 8 March 1904 [20]
8 Jimmy Matthews  Australia  South Africa 1 1/3 England Old Trafford, Manchester 28 May 1912 [21]
9 Jimmy Matthews  Australia  South Africa 2 1/3 England Old Trafford, Manchester 28 May 1912 [21]
10 Maurice Allom  England  New Zealand 1 1/4 New Zealand Lancaster Park, Christchurch 10 January 1930 [22]
11 Tom Goddard  England  South Africa 1 1/5 South Africa Old Wanderers, Johannesburg 26 December 1938 [23]
12 Peter Loader  England  West Indies 1 4/5 England Headingley, Leeds 25 July 1957 [24]
13 Lindsay Kline  Australia  South Africa 2 2/5 South Africa Newlands, Cape Town 3 January 1958 [25]
14 Wes Hall  West Indies  Pakistan 1 3/3 Pakistan Bagh-e-Jinnah, Lahore 29 March 1959 [26]
15 Geoff Griffin  South Africa  England 1 2/5 England Lord's, London 24 June 1960 [27]
16 Lance Gibbs  West Indies  Australia 1 4/5 Australia Adelaide Oval, Adelaide 30 January 1961 [28]
17 Peter Petherick  New Zealand  Pakistan 1 1/3 Pakistan Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore 9 October 1976 [29]
18 Courtney Walsh  West Indies  Australia 1 & 2 1/5 Australia The Gabba, Brisbane 18–20 November 1988 [30]
19 Merv Hughes  Australia  West Indies 1 & 2 2/5 Australia WACA, Perth 3–4 December 1988 [31]
20 Damien Fleming  Australia  Pakistan 2 2/3 Pakistan Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi 9 October 1994 [32]
21 Shane Warne  Australia  England 2 2/5 Australia MCG, Melbourne 29 December 1994 [33]
22 Dominic Cork  England  West Indies 2 4/6 England Old Trafford, Manchester 30 July 1995 [34]
23 Darren Gough  England  Australia 1 5/5 Australia Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney 2 January 1999 [35]
24 Wasim Akram  Pakistan  Sri Lanka 1 3/4 Pakistan Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore 6 March 1999 [36]
25 Wasim Akram  Pakistan  Sri Lanka 2 4/4 Bangladesh Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka 14 March 1999 [37]
26 Nuwan Zoysa  Sri Lanka  Zimbabwe 1 2/3 Zimbabwe Harare Sports Club, Harare 26 November 1999 [38]
27 Abdul Razzaq  Pakistan  Sri Lanka 1 2/3 Sri Lanka Galle International Stadium, Galle 21 June 2000 [39]
28 Glenn McGrath  Australia  West Indies 1 2/5 Australia WACA, Perth 1 December 2000 [40]
29 Harbhajan Singh  India  Australia 1 2/3 India Eden Gardens, Calcutta 11 March 2001 [41]
30 Mohammad Sami  Pakistan  Sri Lanka 1 3/3 Pakistan Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore 8 March 2002 [42]
31 Jermaine Lawson  West Indies  Australia 1 & 2 3/4 Barbados Kensington Oval, Bridgetown 2–5 May 2003 [43]
32 Alok Kapali  Bangladesh  Pakistan 1 2/3 Pakistan Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar 29 August 2003 [44]
33 Andy Blignaut  Zimbabwe  Bangladesh 2 1/2 Zimbabwe Harare Sports Club, Harare 22 February 2004 [45]
34 Matthew Hoggard  England  West Indies 2 3/4 Barbados Kensington Oval, Bridgetown 3 April 2004 [46]
35 James Franklin  New Zealand  Bangladesh 1 1/2 Bangladesh Bangabandhu National Stadium, Dhaka 20 October 2004 [47]
36 Irfan Pathan  India  Pakistan 1 3/3 Pakistan National Stadium, Karachi 29 January 2006 [48]
37 Ryan Sidebottom  England  New Zealand 2 1/3 New Zealand Seddon Park, Hamilton 8 March 2008 [49]
38 Peter Siddle  Australia  England 1 1/5 Australia Brisbane Cricket Ground, Brisbane 25 November 2010 [50]
39 Stuart Broad  England  India 1 2/4 England Trent Bridge, Nottingham 30 July 2011 [51]
40 Sohag Gazi  Bangladesh  New Zealand 2 1/2 Bangladesh Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chittagong 13 October 2013 [52]
41 Stuart Broad  England  Sri Lanka 1 2/2 England Headingley, Leeds 20 June 2014 [53]
42 Rangana Herath  Sri Lanka  Australia 1 2/3 Sri Lanka Galle International Stadium, Galle 5 August 2016 [54]
43 Moeen Ali  England  South Africa 2 3/4 England The Oval, London 31 July 2017 [55]
44 Jasprit Bumrah  India  West Indies 1 2/2 Jamaica Sabina Park, Kingston 31 August 2019 [56]
45 Naseem Shah  Pakistan  Bangladesh 2 1/2 Pakistan Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi 9 February 2020 [57]
46 Keshav Maharaj  South Africa  West Indies 2 2/2 Saint Lucia Daren Sammy Cricket Ground, Gros Islet 21 June 2021 [58]

By team

England and Australia combined have taken over half of all Test match hat-tricks to date, 24 of 45 (53.33%).[5]

Test hat-tricks by team
Team Hat-tricks No. of
Players
 England 14 13
 Australia 11 9
 Pakistan 5 4
 West Indies 4 4
 India 3 3
 Bangladesh 2 2
 New Zealand 2 2
 South Africa 2 2
 Sri Lanka 2 2
 Zimbabwe 1 1

By player

Players with multiple hat-tricks
Player Hat-tricks
AustraliaHugh Trumble 2
AustraliaJimmy Matthews
PakistanWasim Akram
EnglandStuart Broad

By ground

Grounds involved in multiple Test Hat-tricks
Ground Hat-tricks
Australia Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne 5
Pakistan Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore 3
England Headingley, Leeds
England Old Trafford, Manchester
Pakistan Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Rawalpindi 2
Bangladesh Bangabandhu Stadium, Dhaka
Australia The Gabba, Brisbane
Sri Lanka Galle International Stadium, Galle
Barbados Kensington Oval, Bridgetown
Zimbabwe Harare Sports Club, Harare
Australia Sydney Cricket Ground, Sydney
Australia WACA Ground, Perth

See also

References

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