Sam Curran, 20 years and 302 days, became the youngest player to claim a hat-trick in the Indian Premier League. On Monday, Curran removed Harshal Patel (0), Kagiso Rabada (0) and Sandeep Lamichhane (0) to take the 1st hat-trick of the 2019 Indian Premier League.
Sam Curran was playing only his 2nd IPL match on Monday after KXIP decided to include him instead of Chris Gayle, who is the fastest to 4000 IPL runs and the only batsman to hit 300 sixes in the tournament. Curran made only 20 with the bat but rocked DC with a hat-trick and finished with figures of 4 for 11 off 2.2 overs to win the man-of-the-match award.
In the IPL Player Auction in December, KXIP bought Sam Curran for Rs 7.20 crore after a fierce bidding war with Royal Challengers Bangalore. On Monday, Curran showed why he was such a great buy when he helped KXIP snatch victory from the jaws of defeat and move to No.2 in the 2019 IPL points table.
Curran is now the youngest player to take an IPL hat-trick. The record was held by Rohit Sharma, who is now captain of Mumbai Indians. In 2009, Rohit had taken a hat-trick at the age of 22 years and 6 days.
Sam Curran, with his hat-trick, has joined a rare group of bowlers. His name will now be placed alongside the likes of Amit Mishra, Yuvraj Singh, Makhaya Ntini, Samuel Badree, Andrew Tye (who also plays for KXIP now), Pravin Tambe, Jaydev Unadkat and others.
It was a sensational effort from Sam Curran. Delhi Capitals were cruising along in their chase of 167 at 144 for 3 but lost their last 7 wickets for 8 runs in 18 balls. Curran took 4 of those wickets.
.@DelhiCapitals Skipper Shreyas Iyer calls it right at the toss and elects to bowl first against the @lionsdenkxip #KXIPvDC pic.twitter.com/5x6KrAxIt6
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) April 1, 2019
Sam Curran was named man-of-the-match for his efforts and he said he had no idea he had taken a hat-trick. He had dismissed off the last ball of his second over and took the other two off the first two balls of his third over.
“I didn’t really know [about the hat-trick], the crowd was so loud, I couldn’t hear myself thinking,” Sam Curran said after receiving the man-of-the-match award from Kalli Purie, Vice Chairperson of the India Today Group.
Now, the world will sit up and watch Sam Curran everytime he runs in to bowl in the IPL. He has joined an elite list of men with hat-tricks in the tournament and well, he is the youngest.
