Twitter Reactions: Rajneesh Gurbani becomes the second bowler to pick a hat-trick in Ranji final

Rajneesh Gurbani was the on the cusp of making history with his Vidarbha side as they narrowly defeated favourites Karnataka by five runs. It was a solid performance from Vidarbha’s key bowler against a heavy batting loaded Karnataka side. Vidarbha only needed three wickets to book a place in the finals alongside Delhi, and who better to take those wickets than Gurbani himself. Gurbani ended the innings with career best of 7/68. However, the biggest stage awaited the youngster.

Gurbani was given the daunting task of bowling to premier batsmen in the form of the Delhi side. Delhi had just arrived at the finals, after knocking tournament favourites Mumbai in the semi-finals. The venue was none other than the Holkar stadium at Indore, where Vidarbha skipper Faiz Fazal won the toss and elected to bowl first.

The first victim for the right-arm pacer came in the 39th over of the innings, when he got the edge of Delhi’s skipper Rishab Pant for 21 runs. It was the right-arm pacer who dealt in blows for the Vidarbha side, as he picked up Himmat Singh next. Himmat Singh did not have any clue to the right-arm pacer’s line and length edging one to the keeper.

A hattrick for Gurbani

However, the two wickets were just a sample of what Gurbani could do. The right-arm pacer became the second player to pick a hattrick in the Ranji Trophy finals after Tamil Nadu’s B Kalyanasundaram who picked it up against Mumbai back in 1972/73 finals. Vikas Mishra was this first scalp, as the right-hander did not have a clue against Gurbani. Gurbani followed it up with another full delivery knocking Navdeep Saini’s stumps.

The right-arm pacer picked up his hattrick wicket bowling the in-form batsman Dhruv Shorey, who was batting at 145 when the pace of Gurbani rearranged his stumps. He then went on to pick another wicket, against bowled as the tail-enders found no clue to his bowling. Gurbani ended the innings with figures of 6/59 in the first innings, which included the hattrick.

Twitter was an ecstatic space as Twitteratis kept on heaping praises for the pacer, who became the second to take a hattrick in the Ranji Trophy finals:

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