India fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar celebrated joining the Royal Challengers Bengaluru - his new IPL franchise - by picking up a hat-trick in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy.

Captaining Uttar Pradesh, Bhuvneshwar finished with incredible figures of 3/6 against Jharkhand, taking three in three to give UP a 10-run win. What makes this effort even special is that Bhuvneshwar, en route to recording the hat-trick, bowled a triple wicket-maiden over.

With Jharkhand chasing 161 to win, Bhuvneshwar, bowling the 17th over, dismissed Robin Minz, Bal Krishna and Vivekanand Tiwari off the first three balls. He followed it up with three more dot balls to add the sweet cherry of a maiden over on top. His teammates Nitish Rana and Mohsin Khan grabbed two wickets each as UP overcame Anukul Roy's blistering 91 to notch up the win. Despite the win, Uttar Pradesh are languishing at the sixth position in Group B with 8 points.

Bhuvneshwar, who has now taken his wickets tally to 9 in the tournament, was picked up by Royal Challengers Bengaluru two weeks ago at the 2025 IPL mega-auction Jeddah. The once spearhead of India's pace-bowling attack, Bhuvneshwar's decade-long association with Sunrisers Hyderabad ended when the franchise released him; however, as the old adage goes, when one door closes, another one opens. For Bhuvneshwar, that door was opened by RCB, who shelled ₹10.75 crore to get Bhuvi.

Bhuvneshwar fans in overdrive

Before this, Bhuvneshwar was coming off another three-wicket-haul - 3/28 - against Haryana, but his hat-trick on Thursday sent the internet into a frenzy as fans erupted with joy seeing their original Indian swing-king bowl just like he did in the old days. In fact, some even wanted the selectors to send Bhuvneshwar on the next flight to Australia.

Here are some of the posts:

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Bhuvneshwar's last match for India was against India at Napier in November 2022, shortly after the T20 World Cup. It has been over two years since Bhuvi returned to the national fold. The reasons are many, including injuries and lack of form, to name a few, but Bhuvneshwar makes it a point to turn up each year in the IPL and put on a show. Last year, he picked up 16 wickets from 14 matches and took 11 wickets this year in SRH's road to the final.