31 October 1987, Chetan Sharma Takes First World Cup Hat-trick

On this day in 1987, Chetan Sharma became the first bowler to make a hat-trick at the World Cup when he received three in the same amount of balls against New Zealand in Nagpur.

India needed a great victory over the Kiwis to finish ahead of Australia and secure a semifinal at home.

Jeff Crowe won the raffle and chose to hit, but the Kiwis never started losing ground at regular intervals and towards the end Chetan Sharma registered the first hat-trick of the World Cup, as he represented Ken Rutherford, Ian Smith and Ewen Chatfield with the last three balls of his sixth most.



All three were clean and New Zealand finished with 221 for 9 on board.

India needed to pursue the goal in 42.2 overs, and thanks to some sensational hits from Kris Srikanth and Sunil Gavaskar, they reached the goal in just 32.1 overs.

Srikanth broke 75 of 58 balls when he was in his usual destructive form, but the surprise package was Sunil Gavaskar, as he shattered his only ODI ton of 85 balls.

Wisden Almanack described the persecution as “a blow of impressive brilliance.”

India finally lost the semifinal to England, as Graham Gooch broke a wonderful century, scoring 115 in the semifinal and sweeping the Indian spinners.

However, Chetan Sharma’s achievement was soon forgotten when he awarded a final six-ball to Javed Miandad in Sharjah, and since India lost the match against Pakistan, Sharma became the perennial villain of Indian cricket.

He ended up playing 23 Tests, taking 61 wickets at an average of 35.45. His career in the ODI was a bit longer since he played 65 games and took 67 wickets with an average of 34.86.