QuickCrickQuiz.com

……………………….A trick that spread across 2 Days, 2 Innings, 3 overs, and non-consecutive wickets.

In cricket, every bowler wants to pick up the wicket on every ball and whenever he does it so for three sequential deliveries, it’s known as a hattrick. Mostly bowlers complete their hat-trick in just a few minutes, however, in one of the unique instances in the cricket world, a bowler had to wait for a bit longer than usual to complete his hat-trick. Probably this is the most complicated hat-trick by far.

All it happened in this way ………….. in 1988, Australians were playing against the mighty West Indies at Perth. A big man with a big mustache, Merv Hughes, was troubling the West Indians, and the West Indians were 7 wickets down. Tailender Curtly Ambrose was at the crease with one of the specialist batsmen, Gus Logie, at the other end. Merv Hughes was quick to grab the wicket of the not-so-specialist batsman, and the West Indians were 8 wickets down. This was the last ball of his over, and he had to wait for his next over to pick up the second wicket of his hat-trick.

When he started his next over, West Indians were already 9 wickets down as Tim May sent Logie back into the pavilion. The last West Indian pair was at the crease and Merv did not take much time to scalp the wicket of Patrick Patterson. Thus, the West Indian inning came to an end and Merv was left hanging to complete his hat-trick. This wait was almost one and a half days till the end of Kangaroo’s inning.

Again, when the Caribbean innings started with the rock-solid pair, Haynes and Greenidge, Merv Hughes was waiting for his chance to bowl. He was not ready to wait for long and trapped Greenidge right in front of the wicket. Thus, one of the most complex hat-tricks in the history of test matches was completed. This hat-trick was spread over three overs, 2 innings, 2 days, and involved 4 non-sequential wickets. Fruit fly (nickname of Merv Hughes kept by his teammates due to his ability to annoy and trouble people) troubled West Indians in this test match by taking 13 wickets. All he could not manage was a victory for his team as the enormous West Indians defeated Australia by a big margin.