Cummins became the second Australian to achieve this feat in a men’s T20 World Cup after Brett Lee. Curtis Camper (four off four balls), Wanindoo Hasaranga, Kagiso Rabada, Karthik Meyappan and Josh Little are the other bowlers to have achieved hat-tricks in the event.
But Cummins later admitted he had forgotten about his hat-trick chance. “I didn’t know I had scored a hat-trick,” he said. “I had done the previous over, I saw it on the screen, and then when the next over came I completely forgot about it. Stoinis came running from deep and cheered and everyone was like, oh yeah. So, well done.”
After a wicketless first spell, Cummins completed his hat-trick in the 18th and 20th overs. In the fifth ball of the 18th over, he induced an inside edge with a short length ball that shook Mahmudullah’s stumps. The next ball was also a back length ball outside the off stump, which Mahedi Hasan attempted to uppercut, but was holed out by Adam Zampa in the deep third.
When Cummins came out to bowl the final over of the innings, he started to bowl a slower ball outside off against set-piece batsman Touheed Hridoi, who latched onto the ball at short fine leg. Hridoi scored 40 runs off 28 balls for the hat-trick, the sixth time Mahmudullah had taken a hat-trick in international cricket.
Cummins’ three wickets and Zampa’s 24 runs helped Australia restrict Bangladesh to 140-8. Australia started the chase, led by David Warner’s 50, but rain stopped the match and Australia eventually won by 28 runs under the DLS format.
