Mithun’s good news, bad news day

Within a span of a few hours, Abhimanyu Mithun found himself in the news for two contrasting reasons.

On Friday it emerged he has been summoned by the Bengaluru police for questioning in connection with match-fixing allegations in the Karnataka Premier League 2019, that surfaced earlier this month.

Later in the day, the former India pacer found himself in the record books after picking up five wickets, including a hat-trick, in one over for Karnataka in the semifinals of the Syed Mushtaq Ali tournament against Haryana.

Mithun had earlier picked a hat-trick in the Vijay Hazare Trophy final against Tamil Nadu last month. He now has become the first bowler to have a hat-trick in all three formats in Indian domestic cricket.

The pacer did not have a great day till his last over, which was also the last over of the innings, having gone for 37 runs from his first three overs and finished with 5/39 in four overs.

Mithun removed two-set batsmen off the first two balls when Himanshu Rana (61) was caught at mid-wicket before Rahul Tewatia (34) was caught at long-on. His hat-trick victim was Sumit Kumar trying to scoop it over leg-side only to give a simple catch to the short fine-leg fielder.

Amit Mishra was the next to go, trying to swat it across the off-side and top-edging to the cover fielder inside the ring. Jayant Yadav was dismissed off the last bowl of the innings trying to go behind fine-leg but feathering to wicket-keeper K.L. Rahul.