mmg.com.au

Shaun Dryden is no stranger to the feeling of being on a hat-trick.

The only problem was, until Saturday, he had never successfully completed one.

However, the 18-year-old made up for lost opportunities with a double hat-trick for Mooroopna in the McGregor Shield clash against Murchison.

‘‘I’ve been on plenty of hat-tricks before, but I’ve never got a hat-trick, let alone a double hat-trick,’’ Dryden said.

‘‘You get two wickets in a row and you think ‘oh that’s not too bad’, but when you get the hat-trick you’re over the top and the double hat-trick just sealed the deal.

‘‘I’m just starting to get my voice back now.’’

The story did not end there, as Dryden went on to clean up the tail in a remarkable spell of 6-0 from eight deliveries that earned his side first innings points.

All this after leaving the field following his first spell, which yielded 0-8 from three overs, giving him the final figures of 6-8 from five.

‘‘I went off with chest pains, because I thought I might have been having an asthma attack,’’ he said.

‘‘I had a rest then came back on for about 10 overs before I got another bowl.’’

The left-arm quick said he was considering bowling a bouncer with his hat-trick ball, but in the end settled on trying to hit the stumps.

‘‘On a hat-trick ball anything can happen and everyone was in close and a little fella came in, so I thought he might want to pop it up, but I just put it on his stump and he’s gone for the swing and missed it.’’

It was Dryden’s second five-for of the season and he was hopeful his current form would lead to bigger and better things.

‘‘They talked to me at the start of the year and asked me what I wanted to do and I sort of explained that I’m happy to play B or A (grade) or whatever they want me to do, but I said I was really keen on staying in C-grade to try and win one more grand final with them,’’ Dryden said.

‘‘I’m very confident we can, we have a great team.’’

Dryden assured the local cricket community his puffer contained only ventolin.