Moeen Ali achieved a rare feat on Monday when he became the first bowler in The Oval’s 100 Test-history to claim a hat-trick as England wrapped up a crushing 239-run win in the third Test against South Africa. The win gave them a 2-1 lead in the topsy-turvy Test series after winning the first and losing the second comprehensively.
Ali’s record hat-trick was not without drama though. His triple strike ended the match as he got the last three wickets. The off-spinner broke the solid resistance from Dean Elgar (136) first and then got Kagiso Rabada to end his over. He then trapped Morne Morkel leg-before-wicket on the first ball of his next over. But Morkel was given not out before a review confirmed the hat-trick and the victory.
The spinner’s dramatic hat trick also broke a host of records. Apart from being the first at The Oval, he became the 13th England bowler to take a Test hat-trick, and the first bowler in nearly 60 years to end a Test with a hat-trick. Another interesting stat: Of the 43 Test hat-tricks so far, Ali’s was the first to include three left-handed batsmen. What a way to win the match!
Here’s a look at some other record-breaking, match-winning, game-changing hat-tricks in recent times.
Harbhajan Singh
For Indian cricket fans, Harbhajan Singh’s hat-trick in the iconic 2001 Test at Eden Gardens, Kolkata would top all lists. It was the first by an Indian in Test cricket, it started the fall of Australia’s Final Frontier and the rise of the new era of Indian cricket, his victims were the formidable Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Shane Warne, and oh, he was only 20 years of age then.
But even though his hat-trick was not the decisive moment of the match – that award goes to a certain VVS Laxman and the number 281 – it was an important moment in the match. This was on the first day of the Kolkata Test, after Australia were already leading the series 1-0. Steve Waugh’s team seemed to be in control of the match at 193/1, before the “Turbanator” came and wreaked havoc with figures of 5/66 and the Australians slumping to 269/8. Of course, Australia would go on to make 445 and India would be all out for 171, asked to follow on. They went to make a whopping 657/7 declared and then Harbhajan would go on to take six more wickets to take his match tally to 13 and India would win by 171 runs.
Rangana Herath
The previous Test hat-trick before Ali’s Oval outing was Rangana Herath’s rout of Australia in Galle in August 2016.
The now captain’s hat-trick ensured that Sri Lanka would win the Warne-Muralitharan Trophy for the first time, and actually beat Australia in a Test for only the third time.
The Sri Lankan spinner’s wickets included Adam Voges, Peter Nevill and Mitchell Starc. Interestingly, just like Ali’s hat-trick dismissal, Herath was also aided by DRS. Hit on the pads, Starc was initially given not out but Angelo Mathews asked for a review and actually got it right. Australia were bundled out for a paltry 106.
This was on the second day of the second Test when 21 wickets fell on the same day. Sri Lanka won the match by a huge margin of 229 runs and went on to win the series 3-0, a rare whitewash of Australia by any team, let alone a struggling sub-continental one.
Before Herath, only one other Sri Lankan had taken Test hat-trick, Nuwan Zoysa against Zimbabwe in Harare in 1999-2000.
Stuart Broad
Seamer Stuart Broad is on this list for having taken a hat-trick not once, but an astounding two times in the span of three years – against India at Trent Bridge in 2011 and against Sri Lanka at Headingley in 2014. But he has actually been involved in three hat-tricks: When Australia’s Peter Siddle took an Ashes hat-trick in 2010 in Brisbane, his third victim was Stuart Broad. Nine months later, Broad became the next bowler to take a Test hat-trick.
In an initially tight Test that England eventually went on to win by 319 runs, Broad contributed with both bat and ball to be adjudged the Player of the Match. In the first innings, with England all out for 221, Broad helped restrict India to 288. He first got captain MS Dhoni caught at slip, then caught Harbhajan Singh on the pads – a contentious call without DRS – and clean-bowled Praveen Kumar to forge a new record and career-best 6/46. Of course, England went on to whitewash India and reclaim the top spot after this series.
Broad’s second hat-trick was a lot more action-oriented in terms of execution but it ended in a rare loss to Sri Lanka at home.
Broad dismissed Kumar Sangakkara, Sri Lanka’s anchor, for 79 on the last ball of his over. He then got Dinesh Chandimal and Shaminda Eranga on the first two deliveries of his following over. However due to the split wickets, he didn’t initially get the context: that he became the first England and fourth overall to take two hat-tricks in Test cricket.
Wasim Akram
When talking of bowlers who have taken two hat tricks, Pakistan pace legend stands out achieving this feat in the span of nine days back in 1999 in the Asian Test Championships, both against Sri Lanka. His first came in a drawn match at Lahore where he dismissed Romesh Kaluwitharana just when he had got a century, followed by Niroshan Bandaratilleke and Pramodya Wickramasinghe.
The second came in the final, where Pakistan defeated Sri Lanka by an innings and 175 runs to become the first Asian Test champions. Akram got Avishka Gunawardene and Chaminda Vaas in the very first over of the second innings and the dismissed Mahela Jayawardene on the first ball of his next over to give Pakistan a rousing start.