Marnus Labuschagne took his team to victory with a surprise hat-trick in the KFC T20 Max on Saturday (September 6), a club T20 tournament in Queensland.
Marnus Labuschagne takes hat-trick in club game
Playing for Redlands in the KFC T20 Max final against Valley, Labuschagne did the finishing honours, taking the last two wickets off consecutive deliveries to take this team to the title.
Batting first, Redlands had made 191-6. Labuschagne, who opened alongside Sam Heazlett, made 16 off 10 before he was dismissed by Jack Wildermuth. Jimmy Peirson hit an unbeaten 102 off 50 balls from No.4, while no other batter crossed 20.
In response, Valley collapsed to 12-3 and 32-4 before a partnerhip between Max Bryant (76 off 38) and Jayden Draper (26 off 23) resurrected their innings. However, it went downhill again after Bryant's wicket at the score of 105. From there, Valley managed to reach 150-8 by the end of the 17th over, needing another 42 off the last three.
Labuschagne had already dismissed Tighe Morris caught behind off the last ball of the 15th over. He returned to bowl the 18th and looped up a high full toss first ball. Cameron Boyce stepped out and heaved it over the leg-side but could only manage to find the mid-wicket fielder. The next ball was the best of the lot: a perfectly-pitched googly that bamboozled No.11 Tom Hallion, cleaning up his middle stump. Labuschagne got a hat-trick and the Redlands won by 41 runs.
Earlier in the tournament, Labuschagne scored a century, 100 not out off 57 balls against the University of Queensland in a run-chase of 195. Redlands lost that match by four runs. Overall, he played three matches in the season, scoring 146 runs.
Labuschagne was recently dropped from the Australia Test XI after an extended run of poor form. With a home Ashes coming up in November, Australia have several top-order questions to answer. He will be hoping to get back into the reckoning by piling up runs in the Sheffield Shield season, which starts on October 4.
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