Piyush Chawla starred with a hat-trick in Uttar Pradesh’s win against Maharashtra in the Syed Mushtaq Ali T20 tournament. In the opening match of the 2015-16 season, the leg-spinner claimed four for 28, three of which came off successive deliveries to restrict the opposition to 109 runs in a 12 overs-a-side match. His first ever hat-trick for his state team wrecked the opposition’s middle order at a crucial juncture in the game.
With fog delaying the start of play in Cuttack, it was a tough task for the bowlers to keep the opposition in check in a format dominated by batsmen. Reflecting on his effort, Chawla said, “When we started off, Kedar (Jadhav) was batting well and he was dropped off my bowling when he was on 10 or 12. After that my aim was to bowl in good areas. I needed to pick up wickets because in 12 overs, it is always difficult for the bowlers to stop the flow of runs. Plus it was a good wicket to bat on and the ground was small. So my aim was just to go out there and pick up wickets for the team and fortunately I got the first ever hat-trick for UP also.”
While describing the hat-trick he said, “When I was bowling to (Shrikant) Mundhe, he just played a slog-sweep and the fielder at deep mid-wicket took a very good catch. The second one was the new batsman and it was my last ball. In my mind, the way he was batting it looked like he might go for single because I was bowling with a normal field. I bowled a wrong one and he just chipped it back to me. The third wicket was Nikhil Naik’s (14 off 7 balls) who was batting well. There was a gap of couple of overs (before I bowled again) so he had got some quick runs. And since it was the second last over of the innings, I knew that he is going to go after me. I realized it was a good chance for me to pick-up a hat-trick. It happened exactly the way I planned. I bowled a little bit outside the off-stump and he tried to slog and edged it to short third man.”
After reducing Maharashtra to 62 for five with the first two of the three wickets the leg-spinner had left the opposition wobbling at 90 for six.
Glad to be amongst wickets and contributing to the team’s win, Chawla said, “To be honest, this year in Ranji Trophy I didn’t have a very good outing with the ball so my aim was to do well in the shorter format because it’s very important for me as a leg-spinner to get some wickets under the belt. It worked that way I just wanted to bowl in those good areas and used those variations in the shorter format and it actually worked for me.”
“Our team did well in the Vijay Hazare Trophy (one-day tournament) as well so we were just carrying that momentum forward. It is always good to start on a winning note because you know the competition is healthy and teams like Karnataka and Mumbai (who are also part of the same group – Group D) are there to play some good cricket,” he concluded.
