Sam Curran's hat-trick (Photo: PTI)

SL vs ENG, 1st T20I: The first T20I match played in Kandy was won by England. Sri Lanka had to face defeat by 11 runs in this T20 International under the Duckworth-Lewis rule. With this, the England team is ahead 1-0 in the 3 T20I series. The highlight of this match, which was reduced to 17-17 overs due to rain, was Sam Curran's hat-trick, which played an important role in changing the course of the match by breaking the back of Sri Lanka. Sam Curran dominated with a hat-trick. He accomplished this feat in the 16th over of Sri Lanka's innings. This happened after 585 days in T20I when an England bowler took a hat-trick.

585 days later… Karan after Jordan

Sam Curran is the second England bowler to take a hat-trick in T20I. The name of the first English cricketer in this list is Chris Jordan, who took a hat-trick 585 days ago i.e. on 23 June 2024 in the match played against USA in Bridgetown. Sam Curran took a hat-trick in the first T20 of the series played against Sri Lanka in Kandy on 30 January 2026.

Which batsmen scored in Sam Curran's hat-trick?

Sam Curran dismissed Dashun Shanka, Mahish Teekshana and Mahish Pathirana to complete his hat-trick. By dismissing these three players on the fourth, fifth and sixth balls of the 16th over, they broke the back of Sri Lanka. Due to this hat-trick, the score of Sri Lankan team went from 129 runs for 6 wickets to 129 runs for 9 wickets.

England defeated Sri Lanka in the match of 17-17 overs.

The effect of Sam Curran's hat-trick was that the Sri Lankan team could not even play the full 17 overs and their innings ended at 133 runs in 16.2 overs. England got a target of 134 runs to win the first T20I played in Kandy. England's innings lasted for 15 overs. The next game could not be played due to rain. When the game stopped, England's score was 125 runs for 4 wickets and they were 11 runs ahead according to the Duckworth-Lewis rule. That became the difference of his victory.

Player of the match was not Karan but Rashid.

In this match, Sam Curran took 3 wickets for 38 runs in 3 overs. These three wickets came from his hat-trick. However, Adil Rashid became the player of the match in England's victory, who took 3 wickets for 19 runs in 4 overs.