Cummins’ luck runs out on hat-trick ball

PAT REVS UP AUSSIES

PAT Cummins is used to lucky breaks on hat-trick balls but a piece of MCG magic just wasn’t to be.

At the same ground where David Boon took a memorable diving grab to his right at short leg for Shane Warne’s famous hat-trick in 1994, history very nearly repeated itself.

Albeit, standing further back towards square leg, Marcus Harris threw himself at a whippy Rohit Sharma shot and appeared desperately close to snaring a classic hat-trick for the comeback kid of Australian fast bowling, Cummins.

Replays indicated it was a desperate near miss and Cummins certainly reacted like a man who knew a rare moment in history was missed by only the barest of margins. But Cummins admits he might have just been out of luck.

“I’ve got two (hat-tricks), one in second XI and one in grade cricket. The one in second XI, Joe Burns was my third wicket. I bowled a slower ball and he ducked underneath it and it was a full toss that hit the stumps on the full,” he said.

“I was trying to bowl a bouncer (today) to be honest. I think it only got up to his waist. I don’t think I could have had enough luck that I would have got a hat-trick.”

Upon consultation with Harris — who had already taken two of the previous legside catches in Cummins’ ferocious spell — the big quick might have felt slightly better.

“I was pretty excited but I think it was well, well out of reach,” said Cummins.

“I think he said if he was a metre taller maybe (he might have caught it). I think it was wishful thinking.”

Cummins had 4-2 at one point in a dazzling eight-ball blitzkrieg, but admits he’s feeling weary after the disastrous batting collapse forced him and the bowlers back into the field for what will now be four consecutive days in sapping heat.