"The Kind Of Swing I Got, Is Not Easy": Irfan Pathan Recalls His Hat-Trick Against Pakistan

Irfan Pathan produced the finest three balls in a succession to register his first hat-trick against Pakistan in 2006. He did not made a good start to India’s 2006 Test tour to Pakistan. He was hardly among the wickets in the first-two Tests in Lahore and Faisalabad respectively. But Irfan Pathan returned back to form picking up his maiden hat-trick in the third Test in Karachi after the first-two matches ended in a draw.

In Karachi, Irfan Pathan wreaked havoc in the first over of the first innings to sent back Salman Butt, Younis Khan and Mohammad Yousuf off the successive deliveries and claim a hat-trick. It was moment to savour for Team India and the left-arm fast-bowler but Mohammad Yousuf saw his worst nightmare come true.

Irfan Pathan: The kind of swing I got on that ball doesn’t happen easily

Recalling his hat-trick, Irfan Pathan said, he left it on almighty to get his best delivery with Mohammad Yousuf. He, however, was confident because he had dismissed Yousuf earlier on multiple occasions. Pathan also said, the kind of swing he produced that day, does not comes easily and people take time about it.

“I left everything on the Almighty and decided that I’m just going to ball my best ball. I knew that this was Mohammad Yousuf, who had gotten out to me many times. I knew that he was also waiting for my in-swinger. But even if it’s a good ball, even if he was waiting for the same delivery, it will hit his pad. I wanted to do that,” Pathan added.

“The kind of swing I got on that ball doesn’t happen (easily). People take time to do that. I delivered the ball, I wanted to hit Mohammad Yousuf’s pads and luckily the ball swung so much. Even after pitching, it had movement and it went between his bat and pad to hit the stumps. At that time obviously you don’t think about those things, but when I look back, obviously it feels really great and satisfied that people still talk about this hat-trick,” he added.

Despite the valiant effort put in by Irfan Pathan, India lost the match by a massive 341 runs margin.