The left-arm chinaman Kuldeep Yadav is familiar with taking a hat-trick since his days of under-19 cricket when he took his inaugural hat-trick against Scotland becoming the first Indian to do so at the U-19 World Cup. Kuldeep has two hat-tricks in international cricket, both in ODIs against Australia and West Indies. The 27-year-old pulled off another hat-trick and turned the game on its head which inspired a sensational victory for India A over New Zealand A.
It was an unofficial second ODI against New Zealand A at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai where the puny crowd was delighted by Kuldeep’s spin master class.
New Zealand were 219/7 while chasing a target of 223 and looked poised for an easy victory. With the Kiwi A side being only 4 runs away from triumph, the 47th over by Kuldeep derailed any progress as he claimed a match-winning hat-trick.
The three wickets on the trot had the names of Logan Van Beek, Joe Walker and Jacob Duffy curtailing the Kiwi innings with 16 overs to spare.
Van Beek was caught at point by Prithvi Shaw, Walker was caught behind by skipper and wicketkeeper Sanju Samson, and Duffy’s defence was ripped through, which marked a victory for India and completed the hat-trick.
Watch the video here:
Kuldeep finished with the figures of 51/4 with Sean Solia being his first scalp.
"When you fail, you learn. When I came back to the Indian side in January. I was not afraid of failure, I wanted to enjoy the game. My focus is to keep hitting the good lengths. (Getting) wickets is not in my hands...just want to bowl in good areas," Kuldeep told news agency PTI after the match.
“To be honest, when I got injured, coming back from there, understanding my rhythm was very important. I was a little bit slow. After surgery, I have changed that rhythm, bowling with more effort and more control,” he said.
Yadav had undergone a surgery after sustaining a knee injury during the IPL in September last year.
