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'Mazak chal raha hai kya' - Fans go berserk as rampant Jaydev Unadkat reduces Delhi to 10/7

Saurashtra's captain and left-arm seamer achieved a historic feat on Tuesday as he picked a hattrick in the first over of Ranji Trophy.

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Rohit Kumar
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Jaydev Unadkat

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The Group B encounter in Ranji Trophy 2022-23 on Tuesday between Saurashtra and Delhi left the cricketing fraternity on the edge of their seats. The Day 1 of the match witnessed a historic achievement as Jaydev Unadkat became the first bowler in the 89-year-long history of the competition to pick a hat trick in the first over of a Ranji match.

The left-arm seamer started the proceedings with a couple of dot balls and cleaned up Delhi opener Dhruv Shorey, who’s also the leading run-scorer of the tournament so far, on the third ball of the over. Unadkat’s second scalp was Vaibhav Rawal, who came to the crease at no 3 and ended up edging his first ball to the wicketkeeper H. Desai. Rawal had scored an unbeaten 95 in the previous match against Tamil Nadu.

The 31-year-old was breathing fire as he further trapped Delhi captain Yash Dhull in front of the stumps on the fifth ball to complete a hattrick and etched his name in the history books forever.

The Saurashtra captain didn’t stop there and picked up another two wickets in his second over to complete his five-wicket haul. He dismissed Jonty Sidhu, who edged the ball to the wicketkeeper and got Lalit Yadav lbw to complete his five-wicket haul in just his second over. This was his 21st five-wicket haul in first-class cricket.

Unadkat further added another wicket to his tally as he dismissed Delhi wicketkeeper Lakshay in the fifth over of the innings to leave Delhi reeling at 10/7.

Jaydev Unadkat returned to Indian Test team after 12 years

Unadkat is living a dream for the past one month as he received a call-up to the Indian Test team for the series against Bangladesh. He got to play the second Test of the series which was also the second Test of his career after 12 years. He also picked up his first Test wicket as he dismissed Zakir Hasan on Day 1.

He finished the match with his figures reading 3/67 in 25 overs. Unadkat made his Test debut against South Africa way back on 16 December 2010 at Centurion. The Saurashtra seamer had a forgettable match as he failed to pick up a wicket and gave away 101 runs in 26 overs. From his first Test to his second Test there was a gap of 118 Tests for Unadkat which is the longest gap for any Indian player between two Tests.

Meanwhile, Twitter was abuzz with reactions on Unadkat’s remarkable achievement. Here are some of the Tweets:

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