Pathan claims fastest hat-trick

Irfan Pathan's [ Images ] 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 [ Images ] 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 [ Images ] Hugh Trumble, Thomas Matthews and Pakistan's Wasim Akram [ Images ] doing it on two occasions. For India [ Images ], it was the second hat-trick after Harbhajan Singh's [ Images ] heroics against Australia at Kolkata [ Images ] in 2000-01.

The country-wise break-up of hat-tricks:

Australia - 10
England [ Images ] - 10
West Indies [ Images ] - 4
Pakistan - 4
New Zealand [ Images ] - 2
India - 2
South Africa [ Images ] - 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 [ Images ]	1958-59
Mushtaq Mohammad (lbw), Fazal Mahmood (ct) & Nasim-ul-Ghani (b)
PJ Petherick	NZ	Lahore	1976-77
Javed Miandad [ Images ] (ct), Wasim Raja (ct) & Intikhab Alam (ct)
DW Fleming	Aus	Rawalpindi	1994-95
Aamer Malik (ct), Inzamam-ul-Haq [ Images ] (lbw) & Salim Malik (ct)
Alok Kapali	Ban	Peshawar	2003
Shabbir Ahmed [ Images ] (ct), Danish Kaneria (lbw) & Umar Gul (lbw)
IK Pathan	Ind	Karachi	2005-06
Salman Butt [ Images ] (ct), Younis Khan [ Images ] (lbw) & Mohd Yousuf (b)