Chetan Sharma

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This is a collection of articles archived for the excellence of their content.

1987

World Cup hat-trick

The Times of India, October 31, 2015

On October 31, 1987, Chetan Sharma became the first bowler in World Cup history to take a hat-trick. The venue was Nagpur, for the 24th match of the Reliance World Cup, where India faced New Zealand. Bowling his nippy cutters and seamers, Sharma castled Ken Rutherford, Ian Smith and Ewen Chatfield with the last three balls of his sixth over - the 42nd of New Zealand's innings - to help set up a nine-wicket win for the defending champions. New Zealand were well placed for a late surge at 182/5 in 41 overs, with Rutherford playing well and the big-hitting Smith and Martin Snedden yet to come. Kapil Dev, India's captain, called on Sharma to bowl the 42nd over, instead of Manoj Prabhakar who had taken a wicket and had five overs left. On the fourth ball of the over, Rutherford misjudged an off-cutter that crept into the gap between his bat and pad and crashed into middle stump. Enter Smith, whose feet didn't move much to a sharp in-cutter that stayed low and hit off stump. Chatfield marked his guard for the hat-trick ball, as Kapil and Sharma had a word about the field placings. The killer ball from Sharma was full and Chatfield's decision to walk across the stumps proved fatal, with the delivery sneaking between his legs. Sharma lofted his arms, the partisan crowd erupted, and history had been made.

India needed to score 222 from 42.2 overs to beat New Zealand and claim top spot ahead of Australia in the group. In 1987 chasing 5.25 an over was quite something, but Sunil Gavaskar, with his career winding down, played the sort of innings few expected from him. Averaging 50 in the tournament, Gavaskar - he of the infamous crawl to 36 in 1975 - picked Nagpur as the venue to score his first and only ODI century. He set the tone by taking two fours and two sixes in one Chatfield over that cost 21. Gavaskar's opening partner Kris Srikkanth slammed 75 from 58 balls in a century stand and Gavaskar, with 105 previous ODIs, reached the landmark in 85 balls as India sailed home with ten overs in hand.