Harbhajan Singh became first Indian to claim a Test match hat trick on the opening day of the Kolkata Test. Harbhajan first got Ricky Ponting plumb in front off the first ball of his 16th over. He then had the dangerman Adam Gilchrist also LBW and then completed his hattrick when Shane Warne offered a sharp chance at Forward Shortleg which was brilliantly taken by Sadagoppan Ramesh.

Harbhajan's hat trick is the 29th such instance achieved by only 26 bowlers -Nine Englishmen, eight Australians, three West Indians, two Pakistanis, a South African, a New Zealander, a Sri Lankan and an Indian. Australia's Hugh Trumble and Jimmy Matthews and Pakistan's Wasim Akram have done so twice each.

At 20 years 251 days Harbhajan is the second youngest to claim a Test hat trick after Pakistan's Abdur Razzaq who was 20 years 202 days of age while achieving this feat against Sri Lanka at Galle in 1999-00.

Eight Australians have claimed ten hat tricks, while nine Englishmen have one each, followed by three West Indians two Pakistanis on three occasions, one South African, one New Zealander, one Sri Lankan and one from India.

No bowler from Zimbabwe has achieved this feat.A total of eleven hat tricks have been witnessed in Australia (five in Melbourne, two in Sydney and Perth and one each in Adelaide and Brisbane).followed by six in England (three in Manchester, two in Leeds and one at Lord's), four in Pakistan (three in Lahore and one at Rawalpindi), three in South Africa (one each at Port Elizabeth, Johannesburg and Cape Town) and finally one each in New Zealand (at Christchurch), at a neutral venue in Bangladesh (at Dhaka), in Sri Lanka (at Galle),in Zimbabwe (at Harare)….and now in India (at Kolkata).

Lahore has the unique distinction of witnessing two separate hat-tricks at two different grounds - one at the Lawrence Gardens and two at the Gadaffi Stadium. Allom, Petherick and Fleming did so on their Test debut. Allom, in fact took four wickets in 5 balls. Trumble (his 2nd hat-trick) and Griffin did so in their last Tests. Trumble, Matthews and Wasim Akram are the only bowlers to do

it on two occasions. Matthews did so in the same match, but in separate innings in the same afternoon. Goddard was the oldest at 38 years and 87 days. Wasim Akram is the only Test captain to do so. Zoysa became the first bowler to take a hat trick off his first three balls in a Test match. The Walsh and Hughes hat tricks were spread over two innings.

Allom, Petherick and Fleming did the hat trick on debut. The second Trumble and the Griffin hat tricks were in the final Test of these players. Zoysa's hat trick was from the first three balls he delivered in the Test. The hat tricks of Walsh and Hughes were spread over two innings.

The accompanying table lists all Test hat-tricks:

 

Bowler       For Vs  Inns Test Venue     Series   Mode of Dismissals

FR Spofforth Aus Eng 1st  1st  Melbourne    1878-79  2 bowled,1ct
W Bates      Eng Aus 1st  2nd  Melbourne    1882-83  1 bowled,1c&b,1ct
J Briggs     Eng Aus 2nd  2nd  Sydney       1891-92  1 bowled,1ct,1Lbw
GA Lohmann   Eng SA  2nd  1st  Pt.Elizabeth 1895-96  2 bowled,1 ct
JT Hearne    Eng Aus 2nd  3rd  Leeds        1899     1 bowled,2 ct
H Trumble    Aus Eng 2nd  2nd  Melbourne    1901-02  1 c&b,2 ct 
H Trumble    Aus Eng 2nd  5th  Melbourne    1903-04  1 c&b,1 ct,1 Lbw
TJ Matthews  Aus SA  1st  1st  Manchester   1912     1 bowled,2 Lbw
TJ Matthews  Aus SA  2nd  1st  Manchester   1912     1 bowled,2 c&b
MJC Allom    Eng NZ  1st  1st  Christchurch 1929-30  1 LBW,1ct,1bowled 
TWJ Goddard  Eng SA  1st  1st  Johannesburg 1938-39  1 c&b,1st,1bowled
PJ Loader    Eng WI  1st  4th  Leeds        1957     2 bowled,1 ct
LF Kline     Aus SA  2nd  2nd  Cape Town    1957-58  2 ct,1 Lbw
WW Hall      WI  Pak 1st  3rd  Lahore (LG)  1958-59  1 Lbw,1ct,1bowled
GM Griffin   SA  Eng 1st  2nd  Lord's       1960     1 ct,2 bowled
LR Gibbs     WI  Aus 1st  4th  Adelaide     1960-61  1 Lbw,1ct,1bowled 
PJ Petherick NZ  Pak 1st  1st  Lahore (Gad.)1976-77  1 c&b, 2 ct 
CA Walsh     WI  Aus 1&2  1st  Brisbane     1988-89  2 ct,1 Lbw
MG Hughes    Aus WI  1&2  2nd  Perth        1988-89  2 ct,1 Lbw
DW Fleming   Aus Pak 2nd  2nd  Rawalpindi   1994-95  2 ct,1 Lbw
SK Warne     Aus Eng 2nd  2nd  Melbourne    1994-95  1 Lbw,2 ct
DG Cork      Eng WI  2nd  4th  Manchester   1995     1 bowled,2 Lbw
D Gough      Eng Aus 1st  5th  Sydney       1998-99  1 ct, 2 bowled
Wasim Akram  Pak SL  1st  1st  Lahore (Gad.)1998-99  1 ct, 2 bowled
Wasim Akram  Pak SL  2nd  1st  Dhaka        1998-99  2 ct,1 bowled
DNT Zoysa    SL  Zim 1st  2nd  Harare       1999-00  2 Lbw, 1 ct
Abdur Razzaq Pak SL  1st  2nd  Galle        1999-00  1 ct, 2 Lbw
GD McGrath   Aus WI  1st  2nd  Perth        2000-01  3 ct  
Harbhajan    Ind Aus 1st  2nd  Kolkata      2000-01  2 Lbw, 1 ct

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