Ace fast bowler Jasprit Bumrah joined a select group of Indians when he completed a fiery hat-trick against the West Indies on day two of the second Test in Jamaica on Saturday.
Bumrah (6/16) on Saturday produced a lethal opening spell and rattled West Indies by picking up the first five wickets, three of which came in successive balls in the ninth over to leave West Indies tottering at 87/7 at stumps.
Bumrah picked up three wickets in three balls in the fourth over he bowled in the final session on day two, reducing West Indies to 13/4. He had picked up the first wicket as well.
In his third over Bumrah was given a change of ends and he started off with dismissing John Campbell: a near-unplayable delivery that the opener could only edge to Rishabh Pant.
And the fourth over, the madness began.
Off the second ball, he got a ball to move away from Darren Bravo and KL Rahul took the catch at second slip.
Off the third ball, he got a ball to move in sharply at Shamarh Brooks and he was given out LBW. Brooks reviewed it but it was all three-reds on Hawkeye. West Indies lost a review as well.
Off the fourth ball, it was another fiery inswinger at Roston Chase. Bumrah did not even appeal, indicating the batsman hit had it. But captain Virat Kohli said that Chase didn’t hit the ball, it was the bat hitting the pad. And the Indian captain went for the review, insistently. It turned out he was right and Hawkeye signalled all three reds, with no bat involved.
The Indian team broke out in immediate celebration.
Before Bumrah, Irfan Pathan and Harbhajan Singh had taken hat-tricks for India in Tests.
“Bumrah’s workload is most important which is why he didn’t play any white-ball games (against West Indies) after the World Cup. He will be a key factor for us as long as the World Test Championship continues,” Kohli had said after the first Test.
And Bumrah picked up one more wicket (that of Kraigg Brathwaite) to make it back-to-back five-wicket hauls. He finished the day with the prized wicket of West Indies captain Jason Holder, accounting for six of the seven wickets to fall in the final session.