Australia’s Cummins claims hat-trick but nearly forgets to celebrate

– Australia’s Pat Cummins claimed the first hat-trick of the ongoing T20 World Cup in Thursday’s Super Eight contest against Bangladesh and then nearly forgot to celebrate the milestone until reminded by team mates.

It was a hat-trick spread over two overs for the right-arm seamer, who had gone wicketless in his first couple of overs at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium in North Sound, Antigua.

Cummins dismissed Mahmudullah and Mahedi Hasan with the last two deliveries of his third over and returned to remove Towhid Hridoy with the first ball of his fourth to achieve the milestone.

“I didn’t know I was on a hat-trick,” player-of-the-match Cummins told reporters after Australia won the rain-marred contest by 28 runs via Duckworth-Lewis method.

“I did the previous over, saw it come up on the screen, and by the time the next over came around I had totally forgotten about it.

“Think Stoinis ran in from the deep was cheering and everyone’s like, oh yeah. So, nice one.”

The 31-year-old became the second Australian, after Brett Lee, and seventh overall to claim a hat-trick in the history of the tournament.

The 2021 champions, who are unbeaten in this year’s edition, face Afghanistan in their next Group 1 match on Saturday and Cummins could not be happier with their momentum.

“We’ve kind of ticked off everything we have we could possibly do so far,” Australia’s test and one-day skipper Cummins said.

“I thought tonight overall was a fairly polished performance, which is kind of what you want in Super Eights. Obviously, two points, but also to get a good run rate.”

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