Napier, March 8 Brett Randell made world-class cricket history by taking five wickets in five balls, among a career-best haul of 7-25 for Central Stags during a Plunket Shield match against Northern Districts at McLean Park.
Randell first dismissed Henry Cooper on the last ball of his second over. In his next over, he dismissed former New Zealand Test opener Jeet Raval. He then claimed a hat-trick with Joe Carter caught behind. His fourth wicket came when Robert O'Donnell edged Randell's outswinger to Curtis Heaphy in the slips.
Randell then added a fifth wicket in five balls to his tally when Kristian Clarke attempted a shot well outside off, got a thin inside-edge with the ball bouncing back onto his stumps, and lost his leg bail.
Only spinner Bryan Yuile (9-100 in 1966) has taken a better first-class haul for the team, but Randell's feat, with all seven wickets falling in the same session — Day Two of the sixth round match at McLean Park against Plunket Shield leader Northern Districts — will go down in history for the unique first-class hat-trick.
Randell's first five wickets had Northern Districts reeling at 9/5 — and at one point he himself was sitting on figures of 7/4. He claimed just the eighth hat-trick in Stags first-class cricket, and helped to dismiss Northern Districts for just 82. Stags captain Tom Bruce then enforced the follow-on with a lead of 291, after having been sent in on the previous sunny morning in Napier.
"I'm pretty blown away," said Randell during the tea break. "The high was pretty crazy, it was like a pinch-me moment. I was trying to stay level-headed and keep putting the ball in the same area, and then after the actual hat-trick, just the same things — trying to put the ball in the same area."
"It gets drummed into us a lot that we don't want to go searching for wickets, so I was trying to just keep bowling the same ball, and our "Plan A" that we'd talked about, and it came off. I had no idea that it was the first time it [five wicket in five balls in first-class cricket] had happened in the world, it's seriously cool. I mean, I don't really have any words at the moment, to be honest. I'll take it," he added.