Australia had a dominating day with the ball during their T20 World Cup 2024, Super 8 match against Afghanistan in Kingstown. Asked to bat first, Afghanistan had a brilliant start as their Rahmanullah Gurbaz (60) and Ibrahim Zadran (51) stitched an 118-run partnership. Later, Mitchell Marsh and Co bounced back in style and scalped quick wickets to restrict Afghanistan to 148/6 in 20 overs. However, the day entirely belonged to pacer Pat Cummins, who created history with his back-to-back hattricks in the ongoing tournament.
In the previous game against Bangladesh, Cummins registered his maiden hat trick in the format. Two days later, he became the first player to register consecutive hattricks in the history of T20Is.
Talking about his brilliant spell against Afghanistan, the ODI World Cup winner first scalped the wicket of Rashid Khan on the last delivery of the 18th over. Later, he dismissed Karim Janat and Gulbadin Naib on the first two deliveries of the 20th over.
Cummins has now joined the likes of Lasith Malinga (Sri Lanka), Tim Southee (New Zealand), Mark Pavlovic (Serbia), and Waseem Abbas (Malta), as they have also registered two hattricks in T20Is.
"Crazy. Played 100-odd games for Australia, (now) got two in a row. I thought they batted well. But I also thought we restricted the boundaries. They obviously ran well. Overall, decent bowling effort. Not our tidiest day in the field. Happy with the total," said Cummins during the innings break.
"Don't know, it's uncharacteristic (sloppy fielding). Maybe it was the lights. Didn't change too much (the pitch). There was spin throughout, and a little bit up and down. Not the flattest wicket in the world, but also not a terrible wicket - there's runs to be scored out there," he added.
Talking about the match, a top score of 60 off 49 balls (four fours, four sixes) by Rahmanullah Gurbaz and 51 off 48 balls (six fours) from Ibrahim Zadran gave the Afghans an excellent platform of 118.
It was their third century partnership of the tournament and was reached by the 16th over after they were put in to bat by Australia skipper Mitchell Marsh.
(With AFP Inputs)