Australia Test and ODI captain Pat Cummins admitted that he was unaware about his hat-trick during the T20 World Cup 2024 Super 8 Group 1 match against Bangladesh at the Sir Vivian Richards Cricket Stadium in Antigua on Friday, June 21.
Cummins was the first bowler to take a hat-trick in the ongoing edition of the T20 World Cup. Moreover, the 31-year-old was the second Australia bowler after Brett Lee to take three wickets on the trot in the history of the tournament. In the 18th over, Cummins dismissed Mahmuddulah and Mahedi Hasan on successive deliveries.
Pat Cummins was brought into the attack in the final over of the first innings, where he dismissed Towid Hridoy on the first ball to complete his first hat-trick for Australia. Cummins finished with the figures of 3/26 with an economy rate of 7.20 in four overs.
Speaking at the post-match presentation, Pat Cummins said that he got to know about his hat-trick when it appeared on the big stadium screen. The 31-year-old that he got few hat-tricks while playing in junior level cricket.
"I had no idea, then saw when it came up on the screen. Set batter in, playing the innings, you never know. I totally forgot about it. So that was a big wicket (on Hridoy's wicket) and happy to have restricted them." Cummins said.
"Few (hat-tricks) in juniors, never for Australia. Agar and Ellis, on the bench, have hat-tricks, joined their club. It's pretty awesome to tick that off." he added.
Pat Cummins' hat-trick and Adam Zampa's bowling brilliance (2/24) helped Australia to restrict Bangladesh to 140/8 in 20 overs. Cummins conceded just 7 runs in the final over of the first innings.
However, Australia won the Super 8 clash by 28 runs against Bangladesh via DLS method due to rain in Antigua. Chasing a 141-run target, Australia were already past the 100-run mark in the 12th over before the officials decided to call of the match and declared Australia as the winner as per the DLS method.
As per the DLS method, Australia was required to have sub-par score of 72/2 to be declared winner at the stage of the match. However, the defending champions were comfortably 28 runs ahead of the required sub-par score in the run chase when the match was called off due to rain.
