Abhimanyu Mithun is having a domestic season to remember. First, he picked up a birthday hat-trick and a maiden List A five-wicket haul in Karnataka’s win over Tamil Nadu in the Vijay Hazare Trophy final last month. On Friday, he not only picked up another hat-trick but became perhaps the only bowler to pick five wickets in six balls in T20 history. At least no bowler has that record in matches ESPNcricinfo has ball-by-ball data for.
Mithun’s feat came in the semi-final of the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy – the domestic T20 competition – against Haryana in Surat. Coming into his fourth over after conceding 18 off his third – the most expensive over of the innings – Mithun’s strikes prevented Haryana from going past the 200-run mark.
Before Mithun started the over, Haryana were rampant at 192 for 3, with Himanshu Rana and Rahul Tewatia having stitched together a robust partnership. Between overs 15 and 19, Haryana had scored 57 runs, and a 200-plus score was very much on the cards. But Mithun had plans up his sleeve – slow the pace down. And it worked.
Rana, who had blasted his second fifty in the tournament, his highest in the format, mistimed a pull straight into the hands of Mayank Agarwal at deep midwicket. Tewatia then holed out to wide long-on. Mithun then achieved his maiden hat-trick in the format after Sumit Kumar failed to read a slower one and scooped it straight to the fielder behind square leg.
Off the next delivery, he bowled a knuckle ball that Amit Mishra mistimed to cover to become the second bowler after Lasith Malinga (against New Zealand in September) to take four wickets in four balls in the same over in T20 cricket this year. A back-of-the-hand slower delivery, which Jayant Yadav did not read, was easily pouched by KL Rahul behind the wicket off the last ball to complete the haul. (ESPNCricinfo)
Stats inputs by Shiva Jayaraman
