So if you have recovered from that list of achievements, here's some more: this was the first time ever in a one-day international that the first three balls of the first over had yielded a hat-trick! Some may say it was Bangladesh and not such a big deal, but hey, he took the wickets!
For a day that started with a sore back, it sure went pretty well for Vaas. His first victim, Hannan Sarkar was bowled when Sarkar tried an extravagant drive. The second wicket was an efficient caught and bowled of Mohammed Ashraful and the third wicket was picked up when Ehsanul Haque edged Vaas into the eager hands of Mahela Jayawardene at second slip.
Sanwar Hossain walked in and promptly hit a boundary. A ball later, just as promptly, Vaas struck back! It was slightly unlucky for Hossain, but umpire Russell Tiffin thought the ball would have gone on to hit the stumps and upheld the LBW appeal. Just one more run was scored in the over and Bangladesh, after the first over of the match, was 5 for 4!
Rarely is an ODI result so clear after the first over of the match, but in this case it was. Vaas, though, was not done yet. After Murali had wrecked the middle order, Vaas returned to pick up his sixth wicket at the end of the innings. He had picked up his fifth in just his third over when he had Al Sahariar caught by de Silva. Needless to say, Sri Lanka won by a canter with all 10 wickets and nearly 29 overs to spare! The target of 125 was never going to test them.
While these six wickets did help Vaas' final tally of 25, it would be unfair to say that he picked up wickets only against the minnows. Vaas is one of the finest left-arm swing bowlers of this era and deserves his success.
