Hasan Mahmud Makes History with Bangladesh’s First-Ever Hat-Trick by a Fast Bowler in Test Cricket

Hasan Mahmud made history in Abu Dhabi. He became the first Bangladeshi pacer to take a hat-trick in Test cricket. The right-arm pacer took three wickets in three balls against Afghanistan on Sunday, sending them to a desperate 8 for 221.

This is the third hat-trick by a Bangladeshi bowler in Test cricket. Earlier, Alok Kapali was the first Bangladeshi to take a hat-trick against Pakistan in the Peshawar Test in 2003. Later, Sohag Gazi took the second hat-trick against New Zealand in Chittagong in 2013.

Hasan started bowling brilliantly on the morning of the third day with the second new ball in hand. He made Ismat Alam, who had scored 1 run off 4 balls, his first victim. The short of length delivery unexpectedly went low.

The batsman tried to handle it, but the ball went under the bat and hit the lower part of the off-stump.
Kayes Ahmed was out on the next ball. While driving a short-of-length ball outside the off-stump, it touched the outer edge of the bat. With great skill like a goalkeeper, he jumped to the right and touched the ground, and wicketkeeper Liton Das caught the ball with one hand.
Hasan stood on the verge of a hat-trick by taking two wickets in two consecutive balls. New batsman Zia-ur-Rahman faced ‘his’ first ball. The short-of-length ball that came inwards tried to play on-side, but the ball went past the inner edge of the bat and hit the pads. When the field umpire did not respond to the strong appeal, captain Nazmul Hossain Shanto decided to review after discussing it with his teammates.

Ultra-Age’s bat was not touched and ball-tracking showed that the ball would have hit the off-stump directly. Hasan and his teammates were jubilant when the on-field umpire’s decision was reversed and ‘out’ appeared on the giant screen.
After this spell, Hasan took 4 wickets for 39 runs, which put Bangladesh in a very advantageous position at the start of the third day.