Cricket
254 years of cricket history, and finally someone did it. New Zealand fast bowler Brett Randell created a historic moment that stunned the cricketing world with his efforts.
5 wickets 5 balls, total chaos. Randell dismissed 5 batters on 5 consecutive deliveries, a record-breaking moment never seen before in first-class cricket.
Playing for Central Districts in a first-class match against Northern Districts on Day 2 of a Plunket Shield match at McLean Park in Napier, he went on to achieve this incredible moment
“I’m pretty blown away. The high was pretty crazy, it was like a pinch-me moment," Randell told ESPN Cricinfo. “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."
“It gets drummed into us a lot that we don’t want to go searching for wickets, so I was trying to just keep bowling the same ball, and our ‘Plan A’ that we’d talked about, and it came off. 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," he added.
He didn't just stop there; he went on to take two more wickets and finished his magical spell with 7/25, his best in 38 matches of his first-class career in a period of over nine years