Hatrick with 2 balls

[Matt79]

Not sure whether its been mentioned, but Merv took a hattrick over two innings (last two wickets to fall in the first innings, and a wicket with his first ball in the second).

I'd back a hat-trick having to be within one match, because as I understand the origin of the term, it derived from the practice of a player being given a hat AT THE END OF A MATCH if they'd taken three wickets from three balls during the match. Given the award would be conferred at the end of a match, I can't see that they would give you a hat if you got the last wicket (or last two I suppose) of the three in a second match...

 

[Richard]

Indeed - but there's no definition of such a thing anywhere in cricket as far as I'm aware (the days of the hat origin were pretty well pre-two-innings cricket anyhow - the hat was given to take around the crowd and collect money, BTW) so therefore it's open to interpret how the player desires.

 

[Matt79]

In that case, hat-tricks across two innings in the one match shouldn't count, to be strict. It's a bit like the Tiger-slam in golf and the Serena-slam in tennis not really be proper grand-slams...