(Reuters) -Fast bowler Pat Cummins took a hat-trick and David Warner smashed a half-century as undefeated Australia kicked off their Super Eight campaign at the T20 World Cup with a rain-hit 28-run win over Bangladesh on Thursday.
Recalled with fellow quick Josh Hazlewood after being rested against Scotland, Cummins’s three-wicket burst helped restrict the South Asians to 140 for eight before rain cut short Australia’s chase.
Victory was secured by the Duckworth-Lewis method.
Australia were 100 for two after 11.2 overs before the match was abandoned, with Warner unbeaten on 53 and Glenn Maxwell 14 not out at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium.
Test and one-day skipper Cummins bowled Mahmudullah for two, had Mahedi Hasan caught for a duck by Adam Zampa at deep third man and then dismissed Towhid Hridoy for 40 when the batter scooped to Hazlewood.
Cummins’s third victim came in the over after his first two wickets, and his hat-trick celebration was conspicuously understated.
“I had no idea … I totally forgot about it,” Cummins said of his first hat-trick in international cricket and the first at the tournament.
“It’s a good club to be a part of.”
He finished with 3-29 from his four overs while spinner Adam Zampa took 2-24 to put the brakes on Bangladesh in the middle overs.
Australia captain Mitchell Marsh had declared himself fit to bowl on the eve of the match after recovering from a hamstring strain but the all-rounder left the spare overs to Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis.
His poor form with the bat continued, though, with Marsh dismissed lbw for one by Rishad Hossain, who took both the Australian wickets, bowling Travis Head for 31.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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