On this day, 34 years ago, Chetan Sharma added a glorious chapter in the history of the World Cup and his career by taking a hat-trick for the first time in the 1987 World Cup. The right-arm pacer achieved the feat during India’s last group stage match against New Zealand in Nagpur on October 31, 1987. Interestingly, it was also the first hat-trick by an Indian bowler at the world level in any format.
Batting first, the Jeff Crowe-led New Zealand team got off to a good start as they scored 182 runs in 41 overs for the loss of five wickets and were hoping to post a total of 240-plus. At this time, the Kiwi team seemed to have the upper hand in the match as Ken Rutherford got himself at the crease. However, in the very next over of the match, Chetan bowled one of the most memorable overs of his career to reduce New Zealand from 182/5 to 182/8.
This was Chetan’s sixth over of the match and he had failed to impress anyone with his performance so far. However, he was known to throw some extraordinary balls here and there. But, no one had any idea of what happened next in the match.
Chetan bowled an in-cutter to Rutherford after bowling three dot balls. The Kiwi cricketer failed to defend himself against the ball and it soon hit his stumps, forcing him to go back to the stands. On his next ball, Sharma dismissed Ian Smith on a similar delivery. There was a brief discussion between Chetan and captain Kapil Dev when he was preparing to face the last ball of the even over.
Chetan bowled the last ball a little fuller but the result was the same as the last two deliveries as it hit the stumps of Ewen Chatfield, and in the process the Indian seamer etched his name in the history of the game.
New Zealand’s team was reduced to 221 runs for the loss of nine wickets. In reply, India won the match by nine wickets in 32.1 overs, with Sunil Gavaskar being awarded the man of the match for his winning ton.
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