With a hat-trick against Australia, Kuldeep Yadav writes his name in the history of Indian cricket

Kuldeep Yadav, a 22-year-old left-arm chinaman spinner on Thursday wrote his name in golden words in the history of Indian cricket.

Kuldeep claimed his maiden ODI hat-trick to sink Australia in the second ODI at Eden Gardens, Kolkata. He achieved the rare feat in just his 9th outing for India.

He became the only spinner and third Indian to take a hat-trick in ODIs after Chetan Sharma and Kapil Dev. Kuldeep picked three wickets on the trot in his 10 overs and conceded only 54 runs.

Australia had no answer to the guile of chinaman Kuldeep Yadav who struck thrice to bundle out the opposition for 202 in 43.1 overs.  

Kuldeep gave the credit of his “special” bowling performance to MS Dhoni and said it was a  “proud moment” for him.

“This is special for me, changed the game for us. Really proud moment”, said ecstatic Kuldeep.

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“Initially I was struggling to bowl in a particular area. It's a game of cricket, everything happens. Asked Mahi bhai (MS Dhoni) what I should bowl, he said bowl what you want”, he said.

Apart from Kuldeep Indian greats Kapil Dev and Chetan Sharma had taken the hat-tricks in ODI.

In 1987, Chetan Sharma became the first Indian bowler to claim a hat-trick in limited overs cricket. He achieved the milestone against New Zealand in Reliance World Cup match.

After Chetan Sharma, hero of India's 1983 world cup victory, Kapil Dev picked back-to-back wickets of Roshan Mahanama, Rumesh Ratnayake and Sanath Jayasuriya.