In cricket, we are very familiar with the term hat-trick, where a bowler successfully manages to take three wickets in his three consecutive deliveries. In international cricket, we have experienced a few hat-tricks as it is one of the toughest achievements for a bowler.
In some parts of the cricket nations, the double hat-trick has been considered when a bowler bags four wickets in four successive deliveries. Not only in international cricket, but this achievement is also highly rare in any kind of cricket game. So, there is no doubt that the triple hat-trick is the rarest achievement for a bowler, where the bowler manages to pick up five wickets in five consecutive deliveries. While there is still no triple hat-trick in international cricket, it is also the rarest achievement in any form of other cricket matches.
A quintuple hat-trick in cricket
Here we are talking about the most astonishing achievement for a bowler in a local cricket match where the bowler recorded a quintuple hat-trick. It simply means that the bowler got eight wickets in his eight successive deliveries. Moreover, it is a very recent story.
The Hooghly District Sports Association (HDSA) Knockout Cricket 2022 is currently running in the Hooghly district, West Bengal. It is a super knockout tournament and a 45-over format tournament.
Durgesh Dubey - 4.3-1-5-8
Here we are talking about the match between Rajbalhat Club and Town Club, which was played at Northern Ground (Hooghly) last Wednesday (23rd February 2022). Though Rajbalhat batted first after winning the toss in the morning, the Town Club’s left-arm medium-pacer Durgesh Kumar Dubey was just unstoppable in his first spell that thrashed the entire opposition batting line-up.
The Rajbalhat openers Atanu Jana and Soumen Bhumia managed to add 16 runs on the board when Dubey’s new-ball partner, the left-arm fast bowler Anish Debnath, sent the wicketkeeper-batter Jana back to the pavilion for 10 runs in the sixth over.
Dubey then started his magic during the 6.2 overs of the first innings, and he only stopped taking the successive wickets when the last man of Rajbalhat returned to the pavilion. In his fourth over of the day, Dubey registered his first wicket when he bowled the other opener Soumen for just five runs. The left-arm pacer not only completed his hat-trick in that over, but he also managed the triple hat-trick in that over. After dismissing Pritam Sar and Debasis Ghosh to complete his hat-trick, Dubey ended his fourth over of the day by dismissing Sourav Kumar and the skipper Biswajit Mondal.
While Anish Debnath got his second wicket in the next over by picking up the wicket of Amal Kanti Ghose, Dubey ended that innings in his next three deliveries. In his fifth over of the day, Dubey got the wickets of Mansur Ali, Becharam Singh and Bijoy Pal respectively, as none of them had any clue to stop at least his unimaginable successive hat-tricks.
Since the beginning of Dubey’s storm to picking up the wickets, Rajbalhat batters only managed to add three runs on the board, including a wide. Rajbalhat were bundled out for just 20 runs in 8.3 overs as their eight batters scored the ducks, including seven golden ducks.
Meanwhile, Dubey finished that innings with bowling figures of 4.3-1-5-8. Except for the lbw dismissal of Pritam Sar, Dubey bowled all other seven batters of that day.
In reply, the openers Soubhik Sarkar (4*) and Jahir Khan (9*) helped Town Club to reach the tiny target in just 18 balls without losing their respective wickets. Interestingly, Rajbalhat opener Atanu Jana (10) was the only batter to manage the double-digit score in that entire game.
Scorecard of this epic match: Scorecard
Who is Durgesh Dubey?
Durgesh Dubey is a rising Bengal cricketer who already represented the Bengal U23 side in the Col C K Nayudu Trophy. Currently, he plays for the Bhawanipore club in Kolkata.
