On the wrong side of things: Mahmudullah involved in most hat-tricks in world cricket

Bangladesh were restricted to just 140 runs in their Super 8 clash against Australia on Friday, 21 June. Playing in Antigua, Bangladesh failed to capitalise in the final few overs of their batting innings, as Pat Cummins ruled the proceedings with a superb hat-trick. Cummins dismissed Mahmudullah, Mahedi Hasan and Towhid Hridoy in a hat-trick that spanned between the 18th and the 20th over of the match.

Notably, this was the 7th hat-trick against Bangladesh in the T20I format, the most against any team. Out of the 7 hat-tricks, veteran Bangladesh batter Mahmudullah has been dismissed in 3 of them, most by any batter in the format. The veteran right-hander has been on the wrong side of things more often than others in all formats of the game. In fact, Mahmudullah has now been involved in six hat-tricks in international cricket – thrice in T20Is, twice in ODIs and once in Tests – which is the highest among all players in the history of international cricket.

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Bangladesh have a poor record against Australia in the T20I format. The two teams have faced each other ten times in T20Is so far where Australia have the upper hand having beaten Bangladesh on six occasions and have lost four matches.

Four Australian bowlers have picked hat-trick in the T20I format, out of which three have come against Bangladesh.

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HAT-TRICKS FOR AUSTRALIA IN T20IS

Brett Lee vs Bangladesh, Cape Town, 2007
Ashton Agar vs South Africa, Johannesburg, 2020
Nathan Ellis vs Bangladesh, Mirpur, 2021
Pat Cummins vs Bangladesh, Antigua, 2024

On the day, Mahmadullah chopped on a cross-seam delivery from Pat Cummins in the penultimate ball of the 18th over, which essentially started Bangladesh’s collapse in the death overs. In the T20 World Cup 2024, Mahmadullah has already been on the wrong side once, against South Africa, where the batter failed to hit Keshav Maharaj for a six against a rank full-toss in the final over of the match, which could have helped Bangladesh beat South Africa for the first time in the T20I format.

At the time of writing, Bangladesh were really struggling to contain Australia in their defence of 140 runs. Australia had already scored 64/0 in just 6.2 overs when rain came pelting down in Antigua. Travis Head and David Warner were in the crease, and had kept Australia far ahead of the DLS target.