Stats: Players with two hat-tricks in a first-class match

Mitchell Starc geared up for the Ashes series in style as the left-arm pacer bagged hat-tricks in each innings of the Sheffield Shield match played between November 4-7. Starc accomplished this feat against the Western Australia team at the Hurstville Oval in Sydney. He picked up the last three wickets of WA’s first innings and did the same in the 2nd innings as well to seal a 171-run win for New South Wales.

In the first innings, Starc cleaned up Jason Behrendorff, trapped David Moody in front and cleaned up Simon Mackin on consecutive deliveries to register the first hat-trick in his professional career. His efforts helped NSW take a 94-run lead. The home side declared their 2nd innings at 300/6 with the help of a hundred from Steven Smith to set a target of 397 to Western Australia.

Josh Hazlewood, Pat Cummins and Nathan Lyon shared wickets to reduce WA team to 218/7 after they had a 179-run opening stand between Shaun Marsh and Cameron Bancroft. Starc, who went wicketless in his first 14 overs, got Behrendorff and cleaned up Moody in the last two deliveries of his 15th over. Cummins bowled the follow up over and went wicketless giving Starc a chance to bag his 2nd hat-trick.

Jonathan Wells, facing the hat-trick ball, tried to play a good length delivery on on-side by ended up edging it to the hands of Smith in the first slip. Thus, Mitchell Starc became the first player in Sheffield Shield history to take two hat-tricks in the same game. He is now only the 2nd player to take multiple hat-tricks in the tournament’s history. Doug Bollinger, also from NSW, is only other two have more than one hat-trick in Australia’s premier first-class competition. Bollinger took a hat-trick against WACA in 2007/08 and his 2nd against Victoria in 2014/15.

With help of the two hat-tricks, Starc became only the 8th player to take two hat-tricks in the same first-class match. He is also the 2nd Australian and the first player in 39 years to take two hat-tricks in an FC game. Australia’s Thomas Matthews took two hat-tricks in a Test against South Africa in 1912 Triangular Tournament and is the only player in Test cricket with multiple hat-tricks in a game. Albert Trott and Joginder Rao are the two players with two hat-tricks in the same innings.

Players with two hat-tricks in a first-class match:

(Stats as on November 7, 2017)