We are just past the halfway mark in the 2019 ICC World Cup and we continue to witness some outstanding individual efforts by the stars of the 10 participating nations.

The ongoing tournament has already thrown up some unbelievable individual displays in the past month – be it with the bat, the ball or in the field.

Saturday’s double-header in the World Cup was no different with New Zealand skipper Kane Williamson slamming his second consecutive ton of the competition in a record innings against the Windies.

However, the day belonged to Mohammed Shami who picked up a sensational hat-trick to help India edge past Afghanistan by 11 runs in a thriller of a clash at Southampton.

We have been compiling all the special individual moments in the tournament so far and Shami’s remarkable feat sees the India pacer become the latest to feature in this section.

WHAT HAPPENED

India were expected to have it easy against Afghanistan but the tournament minnows had the Men in Blue on the ropes after restricting them to just 224-8 with the bat.

Afghanistan’s run-chase had been a brave one and 12 runs were required for a win off the final three deliveries bowled by Shami.

The India pacer first removed the well-set Mohammad Nabi with a fuller delivery in the fourth ball of the over before castling the stumps of Aftab Alam off the very next ball.

Mujeeb ur Rahman took guard for the hat-trick ball but the Afghan spinner lost his stumps in the same fashion with Shami hitting the bulls-eye again.

WHY IT WAS SPECIAL

It was only the second hat-trick picked by an Indian bowler in the World Cup and it came at a very important stage. Chetan Sharma was the first Indian to do so with the pacer performing the feat in the 1987 edition.

On Saturday, Nabi had kept Afghanistan afloat in the chase with a superb half-century and the all-rounder possesses all the tools in the book to land some big blows with the bat. His dismissal by Shami off the fourth ball of the last over all but ended Afghanistan’s hopes of pulling off a shock upset.

The hat-trick was the icing on the cake for Shami and India but the Nabi wicket was pivotal. Shami is now the fourth Indian bowler to pick up an ODI hat-trick after Chetan Sharma, Kapil Dev and Kuldeep Yadav.

There have now been a total of 10 hat-tricks in the World Cups with Sri Lanka’s Lasith Malinga accounting for two of them.

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