5 players with a crazy number of hat-tricks in cricket

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Wasim Akram has two hat-tricks which were within a week of each other

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The hat trick continues to amaze and amuse us but with an overdose of cricket happening all around, the rarity of this feat is on the decline. However it is still incredible to realize that there have been extremely talented cricketers who have managed to achieve this feat more than once and that too in different formats. Someone like TJ Matthews even achieved the stupendous record of taking two hat-tricks in two innings of the same Test.

From the first Test hat-trick that was recorded on 2 January 1879 by Australian Fred Spofforth, through Pravin Tambe’s exceptional record of picking up a hat trick in only 2 legitimate balls, right up to the 2016 IPL hat-trick by Axar Patel.

Here are 5 players who have managed to scalp a crazy number of hat tricks:

1. Wasim Akram

Wasim Akram claimed his 2nd ODI hat-trick against Australia

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The legendary Pakistani bowler perhaps remains the master of the hat trick and that too at the highest level. He has an unbelievable record of 3 hat tricks each in first-class and List A cricket. Besides Tests and ODIs, Akram has also taken a hat-trick for the English county Lancashire against Surrey in 1988 and in a PIA v PACO match held at Karachi in 1989/90.

He, along with Hugh Trumble and Jimmy Matthews, make up the triumvirate with two Test hat-tricks in their kitty. In Akram’s case, it’s really astonishing that the hat tricks came in consecutive matches - versus Sri Lanka in Lahore and Dhaka in 1998-99. The Kolkata Knight Riders’ bowling coach deserves admiration because he managed to emulate his own feat by taking another couple of hat tricks in the ODIs - against West Indies and Australia, both at Sharjah. What is unbelievably fascinating about this record is that all six of his victims in the ODI hat-tricks were clean bowled. Interestingly he has also missed two more hat-tricks in his career by a whisker, instead taking three wickets in four balls.

Saqlain Mushtaq and Chaminda Vaas have also taken 2 hat-tricks in ODIs and besides Akram, Brett Lee and recently Thisera Perera have managed a hat trick in two formats of international cricket.

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