Virat must have shared his Man of the Match award with Kuldeep Yadav, says Chetan Sharma

Chetan Sharma, who became the first Indian to take an ODI hat-trick in 1987 against New Zealand, stated that Kohli should have shared the MoM with Yadav, just as he had done all those years ago.

"I got the man-of-the-match award along with Sunil Gavaskar, who scored his only ODI hundred in the same match (India v New Zealand in the 1987 World Cup in Nagpur). I was happy to share the man-of-the-match award with the legend. Here, too, there should have been a joint man-of-the-match award — Kuldeep and Kohli," Sharma told Mid-day.

"Kohli is scoring runs often but a hat-trick comes once in a while. The last hat-trick by an Indian in ODI cricket was Kapil Dev's which he bagged in 1991, 26 years ago."

At the Vidarbha Cricket Association ground in Nagpur, Chetan restricted the Kiwis to 221 for nine with returning figures of 10-2-51-3. Three different were delivered to clean bowl Ken Rutherford (26), Ian Smith (0) and Ewen Chatfield (0).

In the 33rd over, India achieved the target,  as Gavaskar scored an unbeaten 103 runs in 88 balls despite not being fully fit. K Srikkanth and Mohd Azharuddin scored 75* and 41 respectively, in the nine-wicket win. 

"Gavaskar advised me to keep my cool. The first wicket I got (Rutherford) was through an off-cutter. The wicket was very slow yet Chatfield was playing with a helmet on. Watching Chatfield, Kapil Dev told me, 'Aare ye to dar sekapraha hai' (he is scared) and I bowled him through his legs," Chetan said.

The former Haryana player voiced his happiness about the emergence of a new hero in the Indian ranks. 

"Kuldeep is a match-winner. After bowling his first spell he came back to bag a hat-trick. He did a creditable job as bowlers were finding it difficult to grip the ball. Yet, he forced the batsmen to commit errors," Chetan concluded.