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Taking a hat-trick in any format is not easy, let alone T20 cricket where the batter is always on the lookout for big shots. On April 8, Rashid Khan took his maiden hat-trick of Indian Premier League (IPL) career but it was not enough for Gujarat Titans (GT) to beat an unpredictable Kolkata Knight Riders at Narendra Modi Cricket Stadium. While it was Rinku Singh who smashed sensational five sixes in a row in the final over to pull off an unbelievable task and take his team home in the run chase of 205.
Captaining the defending champions in the absence of an unwell Hardik Pandya, Rashid led the hosts. With a hat-trick as captain in a losing cause, the Afghan leggie entered a list of unfortunate captains who could not win the game for their team despite taking a hat-trick.
Yuvraj Singh’s ill fate in 2009
It happened for the first time on May 1, 2009 against Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB). The left-arm spinner got the wickets of Robin Uthappa, Jacques Kallis and Mark Boucher. His hat-trick helped Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) restrict RCB to 145/9. In the run chase, Yuvraj opened the innings and scored a 34-ball 50. But at halfway stage, PBKS lost the match by eight runs.
Batters let Watson down
Five years later in IPL 2014, Shane Watson was leading Rajasthan Royals. He took his first wicket on the last ball of the fourth over. Shikhar Dhawan who was going all guns blazing became Watson's first victim. He came back into the attack in the 17th over and took the wickets of Moises Henriques and Karn Sharma. The double blow helped Royals restrict Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) for 134/9. It was flop show in the run chase. After four wickets in first seven overs, Stuart Binny and Steve Smith played too many dot deliveries. In the end, it was too much for tailenders to chase down as Royals got all out for 102 and lost the match by 32 runs.
Rashid’s game-changing over in vain
Nine years later, Rashid staged his side’s comeback in the 17th over by taking the wickets of big-hitters Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Shardul Thakur. It helped bring the equation to 29 runs in the final over but Rinku did the unthinkable by hammering five sixes off Yash Dayal to lead KKR to victory.
The perfect last-ball thriller
The only instance when a captain took a hat-trick and his team won was more than two weeks later Yuvraj took his first hat-trick. This time Yuvraj could not do much damage with the bat and scored 20 runs. He was supremely economical with the ball and took the wickets of Herschelle Gibbs, Andrew Symonds and Venugopal Rao. Despite him conceding just 13 runs from four overs, the game went down to the last ball and PBKS won by just one run.
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Watch: Rashid Khan becomes T20 hat-trick king with maiden IPL hat-trick for Gujarat Titans
