A unique history created in New Zealand's Plunket Shield tournament

Cricket is a game of huge uncertainties they say and it was once again proved in New Zealand‘s domestic tournament, Plunket Shield. Two bowlers took a hat-trick on the same day within the space of one hour in two little corners of the Kiwi nation on Friday. Logan Van Beek and Matt McEwan claimed hat-tricks for their respective teams, Wellington and Auckland. However, this is the first instance of two bowlers taking a hat-trick on the same day in Plunket Shield’s 112-year history.

Interestingly, both the hat-tricks were split across two overs and the coincidences don’t stop here. Both Logan and McEwan used to play for Canterbury before and even went to the same school (Christchurch’s St Andrew’s College). While Van Beek was the first to complete his hat-trick which was also the 40th in the history of Plunket Shield after which McEwan scalped the 41st of the tournament.

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Matt McEwan scalped the wickets of Dean Brownlie, BJ Watling and DJ Mitchell while playing against Northern Districts during the first round of the competition after the break of one month. He also went on to take a five-wicket haul in the same innings and returned with the figures of 5/60 in the innings. Auckland is on the cusp of victory as they need only three wickets to win the match with the McEwan picking three in the second innings as well.

Logan Van Beek scalped the top order of Canterbury, CJ Bowes, MA Pollard and KJ McClure, in the second innings and triggered a sensational collapse in the second innings. He also finished with a five-wicket haul and returned with the figures of 5/22 in his nine over-spell. Wellington won the game by 10 wickets as they only had to chase 44 and the openers of their team completed the job without any fuss.

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