A hat trick is a glorious moment on the field of cricket when a single bowler takes down three wickets continuously. It is a rare feat that cricket fanatics vyi for in a match. In the history of Women’s International cricket there have been a total of 28 such feats. Australia’s Betty Wilson achieved the very first hat trick in a test match played between Australia and England in February 1958. As far as hat tricks in women’s test matches are concerned, Pakistan’s Shazia Khan took a hat trick in 2004 and Rene Farrell from Australia took a hat trick in 2011.
The first hat trick in women’s One Day Internationals was taken during the Women’s Cricket World Cup of 1993 by Carole Hodges.
Asmavia Iqbal etched her name in the history of ICC T20 Women’s World Cup by becoming the first bowler to take a hat trick in the tournament against England. The feat was achieved in the second match of Pakistan’s tour in England that took place in Loughborough in September of 2012.
Iqbal gave Pakistan’s bowling a good start when she got Laura Marsha out with the help of Nida Dar during the last ball of the third over. She then returned to take down England’s ace cricketers, Sarah Taylor and Arran Brindle in the final two balls of the tenth over. The right arm pacer finally managed to take Danielle Watt down on the first ball of the final over, thus scoring a historic hat trick.
A month after, Iqbal created history by achieving this much sought after feat, Ekta Bisht followed motif when she scored a hat trick against Sri Lanka in the last over of the T20 World Cup of 2012 held in Colombo. Sri Lanka wasn’t in the best of it’s form having just managed to gather a total of 14 runs in the first three overs while periodically losing wickets. Left arm bowler Ekta Bisht reinforced the game in India’s favour by dismissing Dilani Manodara, Yashoda Mendis and Eshani Kaushalya. India won the match by nine wickets, reaching the target runs in 14.4 overs.
Marizanne Kapp’s hat trick is definitely counted as a part of the most popular hat tricks in the history of ICC T20 Women’s World Cup. The amazing feat was achieved on 14th of September, 2013. The South African ace bowler, weaved magic in the last over taking down Rumana Ahmed, Ritu Moni and Fahima Khatun of Bangladesh. Kapp managed to finish in 4-1-6-4. South Africa won the match by nine wickets in 11.3 overs.
Writer – Arunima SenGupta
