JUNEE opening bowler Joe Crowder has etched his name in Riverina cricket folklore by pulling off a rare triple hat-trick.
Playing on Saturday, Crowder took an incredible five wickets in five balls against Gundagai to record only the third known triple hat-trick in cricket history.
The Stallions paceman went on to take six wickets in seven balls and finish with 7-12, clean bowling each batsman.
In a man-of-the-match performance Crowder also top scored with 48 runs to guide his team to victory.
“I just tried to concentrate on line and length and putting the ball in the right spots,” he said.
“On the hat-trick ball and the fifth ball I wanted to do exactly the same thing and it ended up paying off.”
Crowder took the first wicket with the final ball of his sixth over before dismissing the next four batsman with the first four balls of his seventh over.
While the new batsman survived the fifth ball of the over Crowder quickly sent him back to the pavilion with the final ball of the over.
While 7-12 is the best bowling figures of his career, surprisingly it is not the first time Crowder has taken a hat-trick.
“I’ve got one hat-trick before but this was pretty special,” he said.
“Gundagai are one of the top teams and we bowled them out for about 30, which was a great effort by the whole team.
“I think all the boys were pretty happy for me and to get the win ... it was a great day.”
The round 10 Gundagai and District match between Junee and Gundagai at Stan Crowe Oval was never going to be a close one after Crowder’s heroics.
The Stallions scored 9-107 in the first innings before cleaning up the Lotts for just 34.