Hope Dhoni was watching my hat-trick:Rohit Sharma

DLF Indian Premier League
Hope Dhoni was watching my hat-trick:Rohit Sharma

CENTURION: His swagger suggests he knows he is immensely talented. He knows he is the heir apparent, if you will.. Rohit Sharma knows that the world is aware of his talent and it is finally coming out in the open. Whether it is with the bat or on the field, he has the uncanny ability to look a class apart. You can never miss him in the heat of the battle.


And if you add a hat-trick to his CV, then you suddenly have a man for the future or the torchbearer for the present. He knows his statistics better than anyone else. And , he remembers the struggle of his early years very well and especially the hard yards put in when growing up.


Wednesday will be remembered for his hat-trick spread over two overs but Rohit Sharma still remembers his first hat-trick for his school Swami Vivekananda when he was 14. "I also scored 123 in that game. I still have a huge newspaper cutting. But the high point was the hat-trick,: he smiles as he reminisces his early years.


But Rohit Sharma does not idolise any of the great off-spinner, past or present. He just remembers bowling at the nets in the school.


The new-found stardom sits pretty easily on his shoulders. In fact he doesn't stop gloating the fact that he has achieved only the second hat-trick in DLF IPL 2009 and also his second hat-trick in his career.


He uses this platform to quietly send out a message for those who matter at the highest level. His hat-trick on Wednesday also meant that he was taking his bowling seriously unlike what may have been perceived.


"Obviously yes, I am a good bowler. I have been working hard at my bowling. I didn't get enough opportunities at the international level of bowling that well. I have been bowling well in whatever opportunities I have been getting. I have been doing well. I am very happy with the fact that I came out with a hat-trick," Rohit told iplt20.com.


But the bigger agenda of the evening was to reach out to Team India captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni and ask him to watch out for him. Rohit Sharma has been in and out of India's limited-over squad. He has never staked a regular place, with his new found love for off-spin bowling, he is hoping to win over Dhoni and the think-tank. "I hope he (Dhoni) watched the game... Maybe... yes... he may have," Rohit Sharma says.


Still to get over the heady events, Rohit Sharma's head is still spinning about the fact that he got a hat-trick. "I never thought so, to be honest. I was lucky to get a hat-trick. I never thought I would get wickets, so let alone get a hat-trick. So quite surprising actually,'' he says.


Ask Rohit Sharma to recall the three wickets, he does a good job of it. He came in to bowl when a partnership had just been broken and was required to pit his skills against his best mate, Mumbai Indians' Abhishek Nayar. The all-rounder came into bat when the game could have swung either way.


Rohit tied down Nayar and he knew that a wicket was coming his way. "The first wicket was Nayar. I know a lot about him, what he does. So my plan was to bowl up right at his boot. So that's what I did, he was trying to be very cheeky. Unfortunately, he missed the ball and got bowled. I will now meet him and see what he has to say,'' says Rohit.


Then a senior from the India ranks, Harbhajan Singh, walked in. "For Bhajji, I thought, I will just bowl a normal ball and he missed it and got bowled." The over ended and Rohit got involved with his fielding. And then when he came onto bowl, JP Duminy was on strike.


First ball of a new over, Rohit Sharma struck again. "Same with Duminy, I just bowled a normal off-spinner, it was nothing, it was quite unfortunate the way he got out but I was very happy with hat-trick,'' Rohit describes his feeling.


Even the players can be a bit confused when you have a hat-trick of the kind Rohit Sharma had as it spread over two overs. It needed Ryan Harris to come over and tell him that he had snapped up a hat-trick. "I started running all over the ground and I enjoyed it."


Earlier, it was his batting which held Deccan Chargers together but now Rohit Sharma had found a new way to contribute to team's win with his bowling. So can we now call Rohit Sharma an all-rounder? "I think so maybe, you can call me that now" he says.