Central Stags fast bowler Brett Randell became the first player to take five wickets in five balls in first-class cricket on Sunday, producing a remarkable burst on the second day of the Plunket Shield match against Northern Districts in Napier.

The 30-year-old right-armer also became the first bowler to claim six wickets in eight deliveries and finished with figures of 7-25 from 11 overs. His spell skittled Northern Districts for 82 in reply to Central Districts’ 373.

“I am pretty blown away. The high was pretty crazy, it was like a pinch-me moment,” Randell said.

“I was trying to stay level-headed and keep putting the ball in the same area, and then after the actual hat-trick, just the same things - trying to put the ball in the same area.

“It gets drummed into us a lot that we don’t want to go searching for wickets, so I was trying to just keep bowling the same ball, and our ‘Plan A’ that we had talked about, and it came off.”

Randell’s feat is just the eighth hat-trick for the Stags in 75 years of Plunket Shield cricket.