Chetan Sharma
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Achievements: 1950-86
Akshay Sawai, 30 years of a hat-trick - `After the Miandad episode, I wanted to do something big', The Times of India, May 14, 2017
Chetan Sharma's hat-trick gave him partial closure following the trauma of the last-ball six in Sharjah. It also found him a place in history
Chetan Sharma is the Moacir Barbosa of crick et. Barbosa, Brazil's goal keeper in the 1950 World Cup, was villainised by fans for the host nation's unexpected defeat against Uruguay in the final. Sharma became a pariah in his own country after conceding a last-ball six to Javed Miandad in Sharjah in 1986.
But a little more than a year later, on October 31, 1987, Sharma took a hat-trick in a World Cup match in Nagpur against New Zealand. And Sharjah was somewhat forgiven, though never entirely.
A great moment
“The hat-trick is very important to me because in 1986, the Javed Miandad episode happened, and I wanted to do something big [to make up for it],“ Sharma, 51, says i n a phone i nterview. “I had some good series after Sharjah. I took 16 wickets when we went to England in 1986.B ut eve n t h at was not enough.Actually, even the hat-trick was not enough for some. People still remember Sharjah more than the hat-trick. But it was a great moment for me.“ Sharma says he did not imagine he'd take a hat-trick because of its implausibility. “It's difficult to get one even in net practice,“ he says.“Besides, players typically have dreams of taking five-wicket hauls or ten-wicket hauls, or taking 100 wickets.“
Clean-bowled, thrice
Unlike Harbhajan Singh's hattrick against Australia in 2001 (the first by an Indian in Tests), there was nothing contentious about Sharma's wickets. All his victims -Ken Rutherford, Ian Smith and Ewen Chatfield -were clean-bowled. Asked if he was nervous before the third, decisive delivery to Chatfield, Sharma replies in the negative. “I was happy enough to take two wickets because New Zealand were scoring well till that point,“ he says. “And then Kapil paaji [Dev] reminded me of the opportunity for a hat-trick.“
Chatfield was a bowler with f limsy batting skills.A nd when he wa l ked out wearing a helmet, in the raucous Nagpur stadium baying for his blood, he conceded a psychological victory to Sharma.“The ball wasn't rising above the knee on that wicket, and yet Chatfield wore a helmet,“ Sharma says. “I realised he was more nervous than me. Kapil paaji told me to avoid bowling a no-ball and aim for the stumps. And that's what I did.“
When the delivery crashed into Chatfield's stumps, Sharma ran down the pitch screaming and sank to his knees. Emotions, some of them built up for over a year, seemed to pour out of him.
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.
