Duminy becomes first Protea to bag World Cup hat-trick

All-rounder Jean-Paul Duminy today became the first South African bowler and ninth overall to notch up a World Cup hat-trick, wrecking the Sri lankans with his enterprising off-breaks in the mega-event's first quarterfinal here.

Duminy joined Steven Finn in the hat-trick takers' list of this edition, finishing with figures of three for 29 from his miserly nine overs -- one of which was a maiden.

The batsmen who fell in succession to Duminy's guile were lankan skipper Angelo Mathews (19), Nuwan Kulasekara (1) and debutant Tharindu Kaushal (0).

It all started in the 33rd over when Duminy had Mathews caught by Faf du Plessis off the final ball of the over. He came back in the 35th over to get Kulasekara caught behind wicket before trapping Kaushal plumb in front of the middle stump.

Duminy thus became the ninth bowler to grab a World Cup hat-trick and interestingly, did it ahead of the team's frontline bowlers. He is the first spinner after Pakistan's Saqlain Mushtaq (1999) to achieve the feat.

The World Cup hat-trick takers' list features only one Indian in Chetan Sharma, who accomplished the feat way back in 1987 against New Zealand.

In another statistical milestone, Sri lankan veteran Kumar Sangakkara became the sixth player to score 500 runs in the World Cup. Sangakkara, who needed four runs to reach the mark ahead of today's match, produced a slow-paced 45-run knock against the Proteas.

The 37-year-old is playing has already decided to hang up his boots from 50-overs cricket after the showpiece event.