20th September 1982 saw the first instance of a hat-trick in limited over cricket. The venue was the Niaz Stadium in Hyderabad, Sind. It was the first ODI between Pakistan and Australia during a not so successful tour for Australia. Pakistan were already leading the Test series and when the ODI came, their captain Imran Khan decided to take rest to heal his thigh. This opened the door for the bespectacled medium pace bowler Jalal-ud-din. Jalal-ud-din was not a very fast bowler but could be nippy and had the ability to move the ball. He played his debut ODI against Sri Lanka earlier in the year and was going to be used as the first change bowler.
It was a 40-over per side match and Pakistan batted first. Dashing opener Mohsin Khan attacked the Australian attack from the start and 82 runs in quick time with Mudassar Nazar for the first wicket with Nazar’s contribution being 28. The stop-gap captain for Pakistan, Zaheer Abbas came and scored a quickfire run-a-ball 26 whereas Mohsin kept adding to his tally. Mohsin was finally dismissed by Geoff Lawson for 104 off 101. He contributed 104 of 169 runs and then Javed Miandad took charge. His 31 off 35 helped Pakistan reach 229 and posted a challenge for Australia.
Bruce Laird and Graeme Wood started a good response and added 104 runs for the first wicket. But Wood was the first wicket to go for 52 off Tausif Ahmed who then also took Laird and the captain Kim Hughes to make Australia struggle at 109/3. Allan Border and John Dyson took the score to 157 before Jalal-ud-din scalped his first wicket of the day. Border was gone and it looked more and more difficult for Australia. Then Jalal-ud-din completely derailed the chase in his 7th over and also put his name in the record books. His 4th ball of the over got Rod Marsh bowled, followed by a Caught behind of Bruce Yardley's first ball. The crowd was excited before the final ball of the over and Jala-ud-din gave them the chance to celebrate as he went through Lawson’s defense to complete his hat-trick, the first ever in ODI cricket. He got his chance unexpectedly and took it by both hands. From then on Australia had no chance to chase the target and ended their innings meekly at 170/9 in 40 overs.
Jalal-ud-din became an instant hero and was celebrated. However, he did not get many chances even after that performance and ended his career with a total seven ODIs and six test matches.
