[WATCH] New Zealand’s Brett Randell creates history with five wickets in five balls

Fast bowler Brett Randell etched his name into the record books after becoming the first bowler in 254 years history of first-class cricket to claim five wickets in five consecutive deliveries. The remarkable feat came during a Plunket Shield clash between Central Districts and Northern Districts in Napier on Sunday, March 8. 

The incredible sequence began with the final ball of Randell’s second over when he dismissed opener Henry Cooper. The pacer delivered a late-swinging delivery that crashed into the batter’s off stump. 

Continuing his fiery spell in the next over, Randell switched to around the wicket and cleaned up Jeet Raval with the first ball and then completed his hat-trick by having the next batter caught behind.

He claimed a wicket on the next two balls as well. The historic fifth wicket came with quite an anticlimax, when Kristian Clarke’s inside edge brought the ball back onto the stumps, completing an unprecedented five wickets in five balls in first-class cricket.

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Reflecting on his extraordinary spell, Randell admitted he was still processing what had happened.

“I’m pretty blown away. The high was pretty crazy, it was like a pinch-me moment. I was trying to stay level-headed and keep putting the ball in the same area and then after the actual hat-trick, just the same things, trying to put the ball in the same area,” he was quoted as saying by ESPNcricinfo.

The 30-year-old also revealed that he was unaware of the historical significance of the feat at the time.

“I had no idea that it was the first time it [five wickets in five balls in first-class cricket] had happened in the world, it’s seriously cool. I mean, I don’t really have any words at the moment, to be honest. I’ll take it,” Randell said.

While Randell is the first bowler to take five wickets in five balls in first-class cricket, a similar achievement has occurred in T20 cricket. Curtis Campher famously claimed five wickets in five deliveries during the Inter-Provincial T20 Trophy in Dublin.