Hat-Trick by Irfan Pathan in the first over of a Test match with wickets of top batsmen in top form.

The first three deliveries of the match did little to signal what was to come. Salman Butt prodded away the first before leaving the next two, as Pathan searched for an appropriate line.Then it happened.

The perfect outswinger, from lefty to lefty; a good length ball starting on middle and moving away before catching Butt’s edge, with Dravid taking a low catch at slip.

The next one – the best of the lot – left Younis Khan looking like a perplexed, husk of a man. Going forward to drive through the off side, the ball swung in late and crashed into his advancing front pad. The umpire did the rest.

Naturally, Mohammad Yousuf took his time as he strolled to the crease, knowing he had momentum to curb. As with all hat-trick balls, the infield was packed: five in the cordon and only one fielder out of shot. Yousuf marked his guard, checked it, and then stepped aside to survey a claustrophobic field.

What followed was almost a carbon copy of the previous delivery, only Pathan had started this one closer in to the stumps. It was quicker, too, and with Yousuf new to the crease, it was too good – even for him. Middle stump was left staggered, Yousuf melancholic and Pakistan reeling on 0-3, with the game just an over old.

With that, Pathan became only the second Indian player to take a Test hat-trick and the first bowler in the history of the game to take three-in-three in the first over of a Test.

         This is a record which is highly unlikely to be broken

​