Six stats from Faulkner's hat-trick

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Australian allrounder James Faulkner completed his first hat-trick in international cricket in their second one-day international loss to Sri Lanka on Wednesday at the R. Premadasa Stadium.

Faulkner halted the hosts’ momentum at the back-end of their innings, removing half-century makers Kusal Mendis and Angelo Mathews either side of a Mitchell Starc over, before completing the milestone when he bowled Thisara Perera.

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Perera has twice been the victim of an Australian allrounder’s ODI hat-trick.

He became the third victim of Faulkner’s Colombo effort when the left-armer’s back-of-the-hand slower ball clipped the top of his pegs, while he was also the first domino to fall in Dan Christian’s 2012 hat-trick at the MCG.

Perera joins former Zimbabwe captain Prosper Utseya in an exclusive club: they are the only two men to feature twice as victims in an ODI hat-trick while also having taken one of their own.

Remarkably, the 27-year-old joined another exclusive list on Wednesday: only him and Pakistan veteran Younis Khan have been victims of both ODI and T20 International hat-tricks. Younis, inimitable in so many ways, though remains the only player to be dismissed in hat-tricks in all three formats.

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Faulkner became the first Australian in almost three years to claim a hat-trick in any format, with seamer Clint McKay last achieving the feat in September 2013 when he snared Kevin Pietersen, Jonathan Trott and Joe Root in an ODI in Cardiff.

Peter Siddle is the last Australian to claim a Test hat-trick; he brought the Gabba crowd to life in the 2010-11 Ashes when he sent Alastair Cook, Matt Prior and Stuart Broad on their way in consecutive balls.

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The R. Premadasa Stadium has, incredibly, been host for four of the past 11 ODI hat-tricks.

Famed Sri Lanka slinger Lasith Malinga took his second and third ODI hat-tricks little more than five months apart at the venue, taking three in three against Kenya in March 2011 before repeating the dose against Australia in August that year.

Perera’s hat-trick also came at the Colombo stadium in 2012 while Faulkner became the fourth with his late-innings burst on Wednesday.

Two have been taken in Melbourne and Dhaka in the same period.

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While Perera and Utseya remain the only men to have twice been ODI hat-trick victims while taking one of their own, five players in total have taken one and been out in one at least once.

Former Australian pace ace Brett Lee blitzed Kenya in the 2003 World Cup with a sizzling hat-trick and then was the second wicket to fall in West Indian Jerome Taylor’s hat-trick three years later.

Image Id: ~/media/C398214432164082945A4E12D78DF952 Image Caption: Lee celebrates the third wicket of '03 World Cup hat-trick // Getty

Legendary India allrounder Kapil Dev became the fifth player to take an ODI hat-trick in 1991 against Sri Lanka and was then a victim of the seventh, becoming the first to go in Danny Morrison’s 1994 effort.

And Pakistan quick Mohammad Sami was part of Jimmy Anderson’s hat-trick at The Oval in 2003 after having claimed one of his own the previous year against the Windies.

Perera, however, remains the only person to have done both at the same venue.

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Six of the past 12 ODI hat-tricks have involved Sri Lanka.

That stretch begun when Malinga claimed his two in Colombo, while both Perera’s and Faulkner’s hat-tricks came at the same venue.

Dan Christian’s at the MCG in 2012 came against Sri Lanka while allrounder JP Duminy snared one against Angelo Mathews’ men in last year’s ODI World Cup.

Image Id: ~/media/A82579A115B0431DB35C0241AAB89D1F Image Caption: Duminy was delighted after picking up a World Cup hat-trick // Getty