Chaminda Vaas is arguably the greatest fast-bowler Sri Lanka has ever witnessed. He made a massive contribution to making Sri Lanka a formidable unit in the early 2000s. The veteran left-arm pacer delivered numerous impactful performances on big occasions and on this day, he delivered one such notable performance in the 2003 ODI World Cup against Bangladesh.
Bangladesh Bamboozled
Sri Lanka faced Bangladesh in a group-stage encounter in the 2003 World Cup. The two sides met in Pietermaritzburg, in what was a crucial fixture for both teams. The Sri Lankan captain Sanath Jayasuriya won the toss for his team and invited Bangladesh to bat first. When a captain has a new ball bowler like Chaminda Vaas, he would always like to take the early advantage and put the opposition in trouble. The deadly left-arm pacer wreaked havoc on the Bangladesh top order in the very first over to give Sri Lanka an impressive start in the game. On the very first ball of the first innings, Vaas clean-bowled opener Hannan Sarkar with an almost unplayable delivery. The young Mohammad Ashraful walked into bat at No.3 but his stay could not last long as he was sent back to the pavilion on the very first ball of his innings.
Now, Vaas was on a hat-trick and the opposition was reeling with 0/2 on the scoreboard. The Sri Lankan speedster was in no mood to relent and continued with his onslaught. The very next ball he dismissed Ehsanul Haque to complete a memorable hat-trick. Chaminda Vaas scripted history by being the first-ever bowler to take a hat-trick on the first three deliveries of an ODI match. Bangladesh’s collapse continued and they eventually got bowled out for 124 runs in the first innings. Sri Lanka chased this total comfortably to win the match by 10 wickets and added valuable points to their tally.