Correspondent, 20 October: Tamil Nadu's left-arm spin bowler Sai Kishore has once again captured attention in domestic cricket by claiming 10 wickets in a match, including a hat-trick. His performance led Tamil Nadu to a resounding victory over Uttarakhand by an innings and 66 runs during the second round of the Ranji Trophy 2026-27 season. The original information also notes that he had previously delivered a brilliant bowling performance to take a hat-trick against Jharkhand in the Ranji tournament.
Playing at the M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, Sai Kishore prevented the Uttarakhand batters from settling on the pitch. The bowler secured four wickets in the first innings and followed it up with a six-wicket haul in the second innings. He achieved his hat-trick in the 43rd over of the second innings by first dismissing Lakshya Raichandani, who was batting on 19 runs. He then removed Saurabh Rawat and Aditya Rawat to complete the milestone.
Despite delivering excellent performances over the past three years, Sai Kishore has not found a spot in the national squad during this period. He previously represented India at the 2023 Asian Games and has taken four wickets across three T20 appearances for the country. There is now hope that his latest hat-trick will surely draw the attention of the selection committee.
With this achievement against Uttarakhand, Sai Kishore has become the eighth bowler to record a Ranji Trophy hat-trick for Tamil Nadu. The state's first hat-trick was claimed by B.S. Kalyanasundaram in 1972-73. The feat was subsequently achieved by Bharat Arun (1986-87 against Goa), Sunil Subramaniam (1992-93 against Kerala), Damodaran Devanand (1998-99 against Orissa), R. Ramkumar (2003-04 against Karnataka), and M. Mohammed (2018-19 against Madhya Pradesh). Recently, Gurjapneet Singh registered a hat-trick against Nagaland in the last season of 2025-26, preceding Sai Kishore's hat-trick in the current 2026-27 season.
