Punjab King’s star leg spinner Ravi Bishnoi picked up a hat-trick in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy on Monday, 8 November. Playing for Rajasthan in India’s domestic T20 tournament, Bishnoi dismantled the Andhra Pradesh batting line-up inside the powerplay overs.
Bowling the fifth over of the game, Bishnoi dismissed Ashwin Hebbar, Ricky Bhui and Pinninit Tapaswi in back-to-back balls to complete his hat-trick. Chasing a meagre target of 150 runs at the Alembic Cricket Ground in Vadodara, Andhra failed to recuperate from their middle order debacle and were restricted to 138 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in their 20 overs.
Things would have looked much worse for them if not for KV Sasikanth’s whirlwind knock of 47 off 24 balls, where he hit three boundaries and four sixes.
Bishnoi and SK Sharma were the pick among the bowlers and clasped three wickets each giving away just 36 in their combined 8 overs.
Bishnoi has been in form of his life in the SMAT this year and has taken wickets in each of the matches played. He currently has 7 wickets to his name from four matches.
Earlier in the day Rajasthan rode on Mahipal Lomror’s 69 off 45 balls to put up a defendable total.
With this victory, Rajasthan have now won four out of their four matches and are placed at the top of points table in Elite Group C.