Irfan Pathan's feat of claiming a hat-trick in the first over of a match is unparalleled in Test chronicles. The previous record of the 'earliest' hat-trick in a Test was held by Sri Lanka's Nuwan Zoysa, who claimed a hat-trick in the second over of the Test match against Zimbabwe at Harare in 1999-00.
However, Zoysa's hat-trick is unique in the way that it came off first three balls he sent down in the match.
A total of 36 hat-tricks have now been made by 33 players-with Australia's Hugh Trumble, Thomas Matthews and Pakistan's Wasim Akram doing it on two occasions. For India, it was the second hat-trick after Harbhajan Singh's heroics against Australia at Kolkata in 2000-01.
The country-wise break-up of hat-tricks:
Australia - 10
England - 10
West Indies - 4
Pakistan - 4
New Zealand - 2
India - 2
South Africa - 1
Sri Lanka - 1
Zimbabwe - 1
Bangladesh - 1
This was the fifth hat-trick against Pakistan in Test cricket. Others to do so against Pakistan are - Wesley Hall (WI), Peter Petherick (NZ), Damien Fleming (Aus) and Alok Kapali (Ban). Interestingly all five hat-trick have come on Pakistan soil.
Test hat-tricks against Pakistan:
| Bowler | For | Venue | Season |
| WW Hall | WI | Lahore | 1958-59 |
| Mushtaq Mohammad (lbw), Fazal Mahmood (ct) & Nasim-ul-Ghani (b) | |||
| PJ Petherick | NZ | Lahore | 1976-77 |
| Javed Miandad (ct), Wasim Raja (ct) & Intikhab Alam (ct) | |||
| DW Fleming | Aus | Rawalpindi | 1994-95 |
| Aamer Malik (ct), Inzamam-ul-Haq (lbw) & Salim Malik (ct) | |||
| Alok Kapali | Ban | Peshawar | 2003 |
| Shabbir Ahmed (ct), Danish Kaneria (lbw) & Umar Gul (lbw) | |||
| IK Pathan | Ind | Karachi | 2005-06 |
| Salman Butt (ct), Younis Khan (lbw) & Mohd Yousuf (b) | |||
More from rediff