Sri Lanka spinner Akila Dananjaya after a hat-trick Picture Credit: Twitter/ICC
Sri Lanka off-spinner Akila Dananjaya had a rather strange outing against West Indies in the opening T20I on Thursday. In his second over of the game, Dananjaya made a potentially match-winning contribution for his side, removing Evin Lewis, Chris Gayle and Nicholas Pooran off successive deliveries for a hat-trick. However, in his very next over the match turned upside down. West Indies captain Kieron Pollard in an incredible counter-attacking effort, slammed six sixes in this over,. He become the third cricketer in international cricket after Herschelle Gibbs and Yuvraj Singh to achieve the feat. He is now only the second, after Yuvraj Singh to achieve this feat in T20 cricket.
"That's Rahul Tewatia in reverse"
Following an extraordinary reversal in fortune for Dananjaya, Twitter has not been able to keep calm. Comparing Dananjaya's turn around to Rajasthan Royals' all-rounder Rahul Tewatia's initial struggle and then redemption against Kings XI Punjab in IPL 2020, a Twitterati suggested that his progression in the match was, in fact, Tewatia in reverse. Others simply hailed Pollard for his spectacular show. The 27-year-old spinner eventually finished with figures of 4-0-62-3.
Watch Dananjaya's hat-trick below:
Despite Akila Dananjaya's hat-trick, it was Pollard's effort which proved enough to help West Indies clinch a 4-wicket win. Consequently, the Windies now lead the three-match T20I series 1-0 but Sri Lanka would know that they had their chances in the match and could well come back to winning ways.