Romario Shepherd is only the second West Indies bowler to take a T20I hat-trick.
Bowlers getting beaten in T20 cricket is not a new thing. In every match some bowler gets beaten badly. Many times it also happens when bowlers make a comeback after scoring runs. But it is very rare when a bowler gets beaten badly for more than half the match and then does wonders by taking a hat-trick. West Indies all-rounder Romario Shepherd has done a similar feat. In the third match of the T20 series against Bangladesh, Shepherd took a hat-trick in the last two overs and became only the second West Indies bowler to do so.
In the last match of the series in Chattogram, Bangladesh batted first and for them opener Tanjid Hasan played another explosive innings. But he did not get the support of other batsmen from the other side. On the other hand, unlike the rest of the West Indies bowlers, Romario Shepherd was proving to be a bit expensive. Before the end of the innings, Shepherd was not able to leave any significant impact and had given away 27 runs in his 2.5 overs i.e. 17 balls without taking any wicket.
Strong comeback with a hat-trick
But at the end of his third over, this fast bowler changed the picture. Shepherd, who was bowling the 17th over of the innings, dismissed Nurul Hasan on the last ball. After this Shepherd got a chance to bowl the last over of the innings. It is here that Shepherd registered his name in history and started it with the biggest wicket. On the very first ball of the 20th over, Romariya ended Tanjeed Hasan’s excellent innings and stopped him from scoring a century. Then on the very next ball, he clean bowled Shoriful Islam with a precise yorker and with this he completed the hat-trick.
The interesting thing is that as soon as Shepherd took the third wicket, instead of celebrating much, he was returning to bowl the next ball. But then his other teammates arrived and told him about this miracle, after which the West Indies pacer celebrated this special achievement. Romario Shepherd is only the second West Indies bowler to score a hat-trick in T20 International. Before him, this feat was done by experienced all-rounder Jason Holder.
West Indies made a clean sweep
Talking about the match, Bangladesh lost the wicket even on the last ball and thus the entire team was all out for 151 runs. Shepherd gave 36 runs in his spell of 4 overs and took maximum 3 wickets. After this, with the help of excellent half-centuries from captain Roston Chase and Akeem August, the West Indies team achieved this target without any problem and won the match by 5 wickets and made a 3-0 clean sweep in the series.