The smile hadn’t left hat-trick hero Dan Christian’s face when he arrived with the Australian cricket team in Brisbane on Saturday.
Christian snared 5-31 with the ball in Australia’s nine-run loss to Sri Lanka at the MCG on Friday, including the scalps of Thisara Perera, Sachitra Senanayake and Nuwan Kulasekara in consecutive deliveries.
“It was pretty exciting. That’s the stuff you dream about as a kid – under 11s was my last one,” Christian said of his hat-trick.
Christian’s bowling efforts should mean he doesn’t have to sweat on his spot in the team with captain Michael Clarke likely to return from injury for the first one-day final against Sri Lanka in Brisbane on Sunday.
His five wickets on Friday mean Christian has 13 wickets at 20.30 in the series but it’s with the bat that the allrounder knows he needs to improve if Australia are to turn around their fortunes against Sri Lanka in the finals.
The South Australian has 158 runs at 26.33 in the series and, even though someone will make way for Clarke, Christian doesn’t think it should be a case of either him or Shane Watson taking the allrounder’s spot.
“I don’t see why we can’t both play (allrounders) in the same team,” Christian said.
“The more bowling options, the better.
“But I need to be scoring runs from an allrounder’s perspective.
“I am not there as a bowler – I am there as an allrounder.
“I have done okay (with the bat) without being great.”
Watson, who has led the team in Clarke’s absence for the past two matches, had been impressed by Christian’s efforts so far.
“To get five wickets in a one-day international is a pretty hard task,” Watson said.
“I think that will give him a hell of a lot of confidence now to know that he’s certainly good enough to be able to be a high-quality allrounder in world cricket.
“It gives the captain even more options with our team having two allrounders especially – he’s fitting in very nicely.”
Peter Forrest has been the only Australian batsman to score a ton this series but might be the odd man out when Clarke returns after two straight single-figure scores.
Opener David Warner (195 at 24.37) should also be nervous.
“We fully expect him (Clarke) to play,” Christian said.
“Unfortunately, someone has to miss out but that’s the beauty of having a strong side.”
Christian did not believe Sri Lanka were Australia’s bogey side – but statistics beg to differ.
Of the past seven games they have played against Sri Lanka in Australia, they have lost five.
Sri Lanka have never beaten Australia at the Gabba in ODIs but will be backing themselves to break that drought on Sunday.
“Our cricket has been a little inconsistent during the series. Our batting hasn’t quite clicked the way we would have liked it to,” Christian said.
“It’s just a matter of us getting it together on the day.”
