Sohag Gazi became the first cricketer in history to claim a century and a hat-trick in the same match as the first Test between Bangladesh and New Zealand ended in a draw in Chittagong on Sunday.
Bangladesh were 173-3 when the stumps were drawn for the fifth and final day as Sakib al Hasan completed his half-century after Tamim Iqbal hit chancy 46.New Zealand declared their second innings on 287-7 to set a 256-run winning target for Bangladesh in little over three hours.
Sohag, who scored an unbeaten 101 in Bangladesh’s first innings, took a hat-trick to finish with figures of 6-77 that delighted the sparse crowd at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.
He bowled 20 overs at a stretch to claim all six wickets that fell on the fifth day, becoming only the second Bangladeshi after Sakib to take five or more wickets in an innings and score a century in the same Test.
Sohag’s magical moment came in his 24th over when he trapped Corey Anderson for an lbw in the second ball before BJ Watling edged the next one to wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim.
He completed his hat-trick as Sakib dived forward from the slips to take a catch after the fourth ball of the over took a thin edge and clipped the pad of Mushfiq to pop up in the air.
It made him the only man to score a century and claim a hat-trick in the 126 years of Test history though he has done the same feat in domestic first-class cricket.
South Africa’s Jacques Kallis was the other cricketer to have come close to the feat when he scored an unbeaten 139 and claimed 5-21 against Bangladesh at Potchefstroom in 2002.
Kallis’ five-wicket haul included three in one over but not in consecutive deliveries.
After taking the wicket of Rafiqul Islam and Khaled Mashud in the third and fourth ball of the match’s 29th over, he bowled the fifth ball, a dot, before making Taposh Baishya a catch of Herschel Gibbs with the sixth ball.
A century, a hat-trick and a five-wicket haul in the same Test, however, is not a completely new experience for Sohag.
In October last year, he scored 119 for Barisal before taking 7-79 including a hat-trick against Khulna in a National Cricket League match at Khulna.
‘I am really feeling good. You cannot have anything but a good feeling when you do something like this,’ Sohag said at the post-match press conference.
Sohag, who prefers himself to be only a bowler, was taken aback when he was told that no other all-rounder in cricket history could achieve the feat at Test level.
‘I heard this from you now as nobody told me about it in the field,’ said Sohag.
‘Again I would say it’s a nice feeling. I would like to thank Sakib bhai and Mushfiq bhai because they took two great catches off my bowling,’ said Sohag, the second Bangladeshi bowler to claim a Test hat-trick after Alok Kapali (against Pakistan at Peshawar in 2003).
-With New Age input
