Hat-tricks in the Cricket World Cup: List of players to achieve bowling landmark in ICC ODI tournament

The Cricket World Cup is all set to begin shortly, with England taking on New Zealand in Ahmedabad on 5 October, a repeat of the 2019 final. As the tournament draws ever closer, the teams are all busy finalising their combinations, tactics and performances before taking to the field for competitive action.

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Some of the world's best batters and bowlers will be on show at the mega-event, and just to focus on those with the ball, it's time to take a trip down memory lane to remember some of the great bowling performances in World Cup history; the hat-tricks.

Taking a hat-trick is no mean feat. It is often hard enough to get one batter out, let alone three in consecutive deliveries. Here, The Sporting News takes a look at some of the best World Cup hat-tricks.

MORE: Irfan Pathan picks his top 4 for World Cup

How many players have taken a World Cup hat-trick?

A total of 11 players have taken a World Cup hat-trick across the 12 tournaments thus far. Interestingly, none of the first three tournaments had any hat-tricks, before seven of the next nine had at least one.

Here are some of the best efforts from this list.

Chetan Sharma vs New Zealand, 1987

Of course, we have to start at the beginning, with the first-ever World Cup hat-trick. India lost just one game in the group stage of the 1987 World Cup, with this match against New Zealand finishing in a thumping victory as openers Kris Srikkanth and Sunil Gavaskar helped chase down 222 at nearly 7 runs an over.

After electing to bat first, New Zealand found themselves at 122/4 before a 59-run stand between Dipak Patel and Ken Rutherford steadied the ship. Ravi Shastri broke the partnership by dismissing Patel, and then came Chetan Sharma.

He cleaned up Ken Rutherford before going on to knock over Ian Smith and Ewen Chatfield. With all three wickets bowled, Sharma remains the only bowler to have taken a World Cup hat-trick in this fashion.

Chaminda Vaas vs Bangladesh, 2003

Bangladesh is an established Test-playing nation now, but back in 2003 the side was making only its second World Cup appearance, after 1999. And they were in for a rude welcome to the tournament.

After losing to Canada by 60 runs in their opening fixture, they faced Asian rivals Sri Lanka next. Any hopes of an upset victory over the 1996 World Cup champions were brutally extinguished, however.

Left-arm seamer Chaminda Vaas crashed through Hannan Sarkar's stumps off the very first ball of the match, before snapping up a catch off his own bowling from Mohammad Ashraful off the next ball. His third saw Ehsanul Haque edge to second slip, to complete the hat-trick. Vaas is the only bowler to take a hat-trick with the first three balls of a World Cup match.

He even removed Sanuar Hussain off the fifth ball of the opening over, leaving Bangladesh reeling at 5/4. They eventually recovered to scrape together 124, but Marvan Atapattu and Sanath Jayasuriya knocked off the runs in just 21.1 overs for a 10-wicket Sri Lankan win.

Lasith Malinga vs South Africa, 2007

From one Sri Lankan to another, we move to the only bowler to have taken two World Cup hat-tricks, and one who has a host of limited-overs records to his name; Lasith Malinga.

In 2007, this Super Eights clash between Sri Lanka and South Africa in Guyana saw fifties from TM Dilshan (58) and Russel Arnold (50) help the Lankans recover from 98/5 to post 209. In reply, South Africa seemed to have sealed victory already, at 206/5 in 44.4 overs. The equation read 4 runs required off 32 balls at that point.

With the last two balls of the 45th over however, Malinga first foxed Shaun Pollock with a slower ball to peg back the all-rounder's stumps before getting Andrew Hall to dig out a yorker straight to cover. Chaminda Vaas then conceded just one run off the 46th over, leaving South Africa with 3 to get from 24 balls.

Malinga returned and managed to complete his hat-trick, inducing an edge to the keeper to dimiss the set batter, Jacques Kallis, for 86. But he wasn't finished yet, as a middle-stump yorker proved too good for Makhaya Ntini, and the Lankan had four in four across two overs to leave South Africa nine down.

After a maiden over from Vaas, South Africa eventually managed to get over the line when Robin Peterson edged Malinga past slip for four, but it was a valiant effort from the then 24-year-old. He remains the only player to take a World Cup 'double hat-trick', i.e. 4 wickets in 4 consecutive balls.

Who will win the 2023 World Cup?

India, England and Australia are among the top five favourites for the 2023 World Cup title. The odds from Dafabet are as follows.

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