Pat Cummins Creates History With Second Successive Hattrick in T20 World Cup

Pat Cummins on Sunday (June 23) created history as the first player to claim to two hattricks in a T20 World Cup during Australia's T20 World Cup 2024 Super 8 clash against Afghanistan at the Arnos Vale Ground in Kingstown, St Vincent.

Cummins, who took a hattrick in the previous outing against Bangladesh, repeated the feat against another Asian side as the pacer claimed his three wickets in a row across 2 overs again.

The 31-year-old dismissed Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan in the final delivery of his 3rd over and returned to remove Karim Janat and Gulbadin Naib off back-to-back balls in his final over to complete the hattrick.

The Australian ODI and Test captain in fact had a chance for a double hattrick, but David Warner couldn't complete the catch in the deep as he ended with figures of 3 for 28 in his 4 overs.

Earlier against Bangladesh, Cummins removed experienced campaigner Mahmudullah and Mahedi Hasan off the last two deliveries of the 18th over and then returned to dismiss Towhid Hridoy with the first ball of the last over to complete the hattrick.

While Cummins admitted he did not know he had registered the hat-trick during the Bangladesh match, the Australia pacer revealed he was aware of what had occurred this time around.

"I remembered that one," Cummins said during the innings break. "It's crazy thát I have played 100-odd games for Australia and now I have got two (hat-tricks) in a row."

This was the second treble of the ongoing edition, and the eighth hat-trick in the T20 World Cup history. Cummins had joined Brett Lee, the only other Australian to take a T20 World Cup hat-trick, which also came against Bangladesh in 2007.

Since 2024, several bowlers have achieved the feat as Ireland pacer Curtis Campher, Sri Lankan spinner Wanindu Hasaranga and South African quick Kagisa Rabada joined the elusive list in the 2021 edition.

In 2022, UAE's Karthik Meiyappan and Ireland's Joshua Little also joined the list, while Cummins became the only player to claim two T20 World Cup hattricks. Here is a look at the full list:

T20 World Cup Hattricks

Brett Lee (Australia) vs Bangladesh in 2007 (Newlands)
Cutis Campher (Ireland) vs Netherlands in 2021 (Abu Dhabi)
Wanindu Hasaranga (Sri Lanka) vs South Africa in 2021 (Sharjah)
Kagiso Rabada (South Africa) vs England in 2021 (Sharjah)
Karthik Maiyappan (UAE) vs Sri Lanka in 2022 (Geelong)
Joshua Little (Ireland) vs New Zealand in 2022 (Adelaide)
Pat Cummins (Australia) vs Bangladesh in 2024 (North Sound)
Pat Cummins (Austalia) vs Afghanistan in 2024 (Kingstown)

Two Hattricks in T20I

While Cummins became the first player to claim two hattricks in T20 World Cup, he is not the first to do so in T20 Internationals as the Australian joins legendary Lasith Malinga, New Zealand's Tim Southee and two other Associate Nation players in achieving the feat.

Sri Lanka great Malinga claimed his hattricks in 2017 against Bangladesh and 2019 against New Zealand. Kiwi Southee took his first hattrick in 2010 against Pakistan, and his second against India in 2022.

The two other players to achieve the feat are Malta's Waseem Abbas and Serbia's Mark Pavlovic. While Waseem took his hattricks against Belgium and France, Pavlovic claimed his against Turkey and Croatia.

Coming back to the Australia vs Afghanistan Super 8 clash, the Afghans got a splendid start with both openers Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmanullah Gurbaz smashing fifties, but they failed to convert the start and finished at 148 in their allotted 20 overs.