Brett Randell. PHOTO COURTESY: Kerry Marshall / Photosport
Central Stags fast bowler Brett Randell became the first player to take five wickets in five balls in first-class cricket on Sunday, producing a remarkable burst on the second day of the Plunket Shield match against Northern Districts in Napier.
The 30-year-old right-armer also became the first bowler to claim six wickets in eight deliveries and finished with figures of 7-25 from 11 overs. His spell skittled Northern Districts for 82 in reply to Central Districts’ 373.
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“I am pretty blown away. The high was pretty crazy, it was like a pinch-me moment,” Randell said.
“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,” he added.
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“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 had talked about, and it came off,” the cricketer stated.
Randell’s feat is just the eighth hat-trick for the Stags in 75 years of Plunket Shield cricket.
