2 Hattricks and 3 Hattricks

Albert Trott was another famous cricketer from the late 19th century who played for both Australia and England. He is believed to be the only cricketer to have struck a ball over the top of the Lords' Pavilion when he hit a ball off Monty Noble (Australia) on July 31st, 1899.

But, his most notable record is being the first cricketer to claim two hattricks in a single first-class match (the only other cricketer to achieve the feat was India's Rao Joginder Singh) Trott achieved this feat while playing a benefit match where he first took 4 wickets off 4 balls and followed it with a hattrick later in the innings.

Albert Trott

Albert had an elder brother Harry Trott who was also an Allrounder and captained Australia and was the first of the list of Australian captains who restored the team's prestige (which also included Monty Noble, who was hit for a six by Albert Trott. Albert committed suicide aged 41 by shooting himself, it has been claimed that Trott was broke at the time of death which was astonishing owing to the fact that he was such a prolific player back in the day.

Harry Trott with Australia Team

Now, coming back to the other player who claimed 2 hattricks, Rao Joginder Singh. He was a medium pacer who played only 5 first-class matches and all of them for Services in the 1963-64 Ranji Trophy Season. Though Rao played only 5 matches, he claimed 3 hattricks.

He got his first hattrick on his debut becoming only the 7th player to do so while playing Against J&K. In his second match against Northern Punjab a week later, he got 2 more hattricks, both in the same innings, and one of his victims was Bishen Bedi.

Rao retired shortly due to an injury while serving in the army. He played golf internationally and served during the Indo-Pak wars in 1965 and 1971 and reached the rank of Major-General.

Rao on the extreme left

Rao's record of 3 hattricks in a single season was later equaled by England's Dean Headley in 1996 and was first achieved by another Englishman Charlie Parker 40 years before Rao. Parker was a one test wonder but he is the 3rd highest wicket-taker in the history of first-class cricket behind Wilfred Rhodes and Tich Freeman, with the figures of 3278 wickets in 635 matches.