Three of the best

By Jarrod Potter
AARON Sheldon-Collins likes to keep his cricket simple and it bore a great result on the weekend as he picked up a hat-trick.
Sheldon-Collins, 14, who plays for the Berwick Junior Cricket Club in the under-15 (2) side, struck in succession three times in his first over against Cranbourne.
The right-arm paceman had the enviable figures of 3-0 after his first over, in which the Cranbourne batsmen couldn’t pick his outswingers on off-stump – his go-to ball.
The first ball of his first over swung late and no run came from it. The second ball was when the fun began, as he ran in, bowled an outswinger which hit the off stump. The third ball of the over was another outswinger which was edged to the Berwick wicketkeeper Cadeyrn Curtain. The hat-trick delivery was a yorker on middle stump, which cannoned in – and as the bails flew, Sheldon-Collins knew he’d completed something special.
“I was thinking ‘Wow, I just got a hat-trick’,” Sheldon-Collins said. “My team-mates ran in, screamed and hugged me and everyone congratulated me.”
The magic moment when he ran in to bowl the hat-trick delivery, all that went through his mind was to find a way to get that third wicket.
“I was just hoping I’d get the wicket,” Sheldon-Collins said. “Hoping I’d hit the stumps or get something and I did so I was pretty happy with that.”
“I just bowled on the stumps, the team was happy and I was happy to get it.”
Sheldon-Collins finished the afternoon with figures of 3-10 off six overs and also took a catch to cap off a fantastic day for the young bowler.
Berwick under-15 (2) bowled out Cranbourne for 82 and is 1/19 in reply off seven overs with Sheldon-Collins listed to come in at nine.