The spin duo achieved the feat at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru, when they combined to dismiss Harshal Patel, Glenn Maxwell and Dinesh Karthik to put the brakes on the opposition’s onslaught.
First up, Axar removed Harshal caught behind by Abhishek Porel in the final delivery of the 14th over, while Kuldeep removed Maxwell caught smartly by David Warner at extra covers in the first delivery of the 15th over.
In the second delivery of the 15th over, Kuldeep dismissed Karthik for a golden duck, caught at deep mid-wicket by Lalit Yadav to reduce RCB to 132 for 6 within a space of three balls.
RCB, however, did not lose any more wickets as Shahbaz Ahmed (20* off 12 balls) and impact substitute Anuj Rawat (15* off 22 balls) took the team to 174/6 in the allotted 20 overs.
Earlier, put into bat, RCB got off to a good start as Virat Kohli smashed his third fifty of the season as Faf Du Plessis and Mahipal Lomror also contrbuted over 20 runs each.
This is the first team hattrick of the season. Gujarat Titans’ Rashid Khan had earlier in the season claimed an individual hattrick against Kolkata Knight Riders.
