Pat-trick: Australia’s engine humming after Cummins’ purple patch

So focused was Pat Cummins on putting the next ball where he needed to that he completely forgot the last two deliveries of his previous over had put him on a hat-trick against Bangladesh.

When Towhid Hridoy obligingly flicked that ball to Josh Hazlewood at short fine leg, it took a whooping Marcus Stoinis to remind Cummins that he’d just joined Brett Lee among Australian Twenty20 World Cup hat-trick takers.

Pat Cummins celebrates his hat-trick against Bangladesh.Credit: Getty Images

“I didn’t know I was on a hat-trick,” Cummins said. “I did the previous over, I saw it come up on the screen, and then by the time my next over came around I totally forgot about it. So Stoinis ran in from the deep cheering and I was like, Oh yeah, forgot about that’.”

That moment provided a microcosm of exactly how well drilled Australia have become at what they hope will be just past the midpoint of this Cup campaign. Five games thus far have reaped five wins, and another four would mean lifting the trophy in Barbados in eight days’ time.

Australia, India and England, cricket’s financial “big three”, have each flexed their on-field muscle to set the pace in the Super Eights phase of a tournament geared largely towards their progress. After England crushed West Indies and India did likewise to Afghanistan, it was Australia’s turn in Antigua to do a job on Bangladesh.

After Cummins’ hat-trick, David Warner, Travis Head and Glenn Maxwell dominated a rain-reduced chase for a vast win, officially by 28 runs on DLS calculations. The victory and its margin should mean the Australians only need to win one of their two remaining games against Afghanistan (Sunday) and India (Monday night) to qualify for the semi-finals.

Despite a pair of coaches well versed in the ways of Mitchell Marsh’s team in former NSW mentors Chandika Hathurasinghe and Andre Adams, Bangladesh still looked too timid at key moments to present a genuine challenge for Australia.

Though Mitchell Starc, Adam Zampa and Cummins all delivered exemplary spells after Marsh chose to bowl first, the Bangladesh innings was characterised by a lack of aggressive intent, as far too many dot balls accrued in a format where bowlers must be put under pressure.

Instead it was the batters feeling the need to get on with things after a turgid start, allowing Zampa and Cummins to capitalise on a series of mistakes.

Zampa’s 2-24 put him in second place on the tournament’s list of leading wicket-takers, while Cummins rejoiced in a hat-trick that was his third in cricket but first for Australia: Ashton Agar and Nathan Ellis have also taken hat-tricks in T20 internationals.

“I think I got one in grade cricket, maybe fourth grade, and I think I got one in second XI when I was 17,” Cummins said. “It was the first ball of the last over and it was Joe Burns and I went to bowl a slower ball and he ducked underneath it and it hit the bail on the full.”

Among the Bangladesh batters, only Hridoy showed the required intent with a 28-ball innings of 40, his third significant knock of the tournament. After the game, the Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto suggested that his team’s tally was some 30 runs short of par.

The contrast was marked with Head and Warner, who barely took a sighter before they set about the bowling with murderous focus.

The opening powerplay was worth 59, before rain arrived in the seventh over with the Australians having almost doubled their run rate requirement at the time. Play resumed just before overs would start to be lost, and the interruption helped the wrist spinner Rishad Hossain find a way past Head and then Marsh.

David Warner brought up his second 50 of the T20 World Cup with a six.Credit: Getty Images

Even these wickets, however, proved helpful for Australia because they allowed a previously out of sorts Maxwell to find the middle of the bat on several occasions at the other end to Warner's second 50 of the tournament.

When the rain returned with greater intensity, Warner and Maxwell had pushed the tally to 2-100 inside 12 overs, leaving the showers to ultimately confirm a wide winning margin that put Australia on top of their group.

“We’ve ticked off everything we could possibly do so far,” Cummins said. “Tonight was a fairly polished performance, which is what you want in the Super Eights, two points but also good to get a good run rate. It feels like over the course of the tournament so far, almost everyone has got a game.

“We’ve been pretty open that anyone in the squad is ready to play and the bowling lineup might change at different times, the batting order might change and things like that, so we’ve got to be adaptable.”

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