Within a few hours, Abhimanyu Mithun found himself in the news for two contrasting reasons.
On Friday it emerged he has been summoned by the Bengaluru police for questioning in connection with match-fixing allegations in the Karnataka Premier League 2019, that surfaced earlier this month.
But later in the day, the former India pacer found himself in the record books, picking five wickets including a hat-trick in one over for Karnataka in the semifinals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament against Haryana.
Mithun had picked a hat-trick in the Vijay Hazare Trophy final against Tamil Nadu last month. He now has become the first bowler to have a hat-trick in all three formats in Indian domestic cricket.
The pacer did not have a great day till his last over, which was also the last of the innings, having gone for 37 from his first three overs before finishing with 5/39 in four.
Mithun removed two set batsmen off the first two balls when Himanshu Rana (61) was caught at mid-wicket and Rahul Tewatia (34) was caught at long-on. His hat-trick victim was Sumit Kumar, who tried to scoop one over leg-side only to give a simple catch to the short fine-leg fielder.
Amit Mishra was the next to go, trying to swat it across the off-side and top-edging to the cover fielder inside the ring. Jayant Yadav was dismissed off the last ball of the innings trying to go behind fine-leg but feathering to wicket-keeper K.L. Rahul.
Speaking after the match, Mithun said, “We conceded a lot of runs so I knew we had to pull back in the last over. I just needed to keep it one-side of the wicket because there was a long boundary and I bowled a lot of slower deliveries. I backed myself to deliver in the final over.”
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