Watch: Vidarbha bowler Darshan Nalkande, who is part of the Punjab Kings squad in the IPL, achieved the special feat of claiming a double hat-trick in T20 cricket, dismissing four Karnataka batters in four balls during the second semi-final of the ongoing Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2021.
The right-arm medium pacer, opening the bowling for Vidarbha, achieved the feat in the final over of Karnataka’s innings, dismissing Aniruddha Joshi, BR Sharath, J Suchith and Abhinav Manohar starting with the second ball of the over. The 23-year-old’s first victim, Joshi, helped a short ball to short fine-leg, followed by Sharath, who played a similar stroke to the wicketkeeper. Suchith holed out to deep square-leg to hand him a hat-trick, while Manohar skied one to cover to make it four in four.
He ended with figures of 4-0-28-4, giving away just one run off the 20th over.
In the past, only one other Indian bowler – Abhimanyu Mithun – has claimed four wickets in four balls in a T20. Mithun’s achievement also came in the 20th over, in the 2019 edition of the same tournament.
Indians to take 4 wickets in 4 balls in T20 cricket:
Abhimanyu Mithun (Karnataka) v Haryana, 2019
Darshan Nalkande (Vidarbha) v Karnataka, 2021Both are in SMAT semi-finals and both are in the 20th over.#SMAT2021
— Kausthub Gudipati (@kaustats) November 20, 2021
At the international level, the feat has been achieved three times in men’s T20Is, with Ireland’s Curtis Campher joining Lasith Malinga and Rashid Khan on the list last month during the 2021 T20 World Cup.
