5 hat-tricks which did nothing to help the team’s cause

#3 James Faulkner versus Sri Lanka- 2016

James Faulkner dished out a brilliant hat-trick to halt Sri Lanka's run flow

In the second ODI of Australia’s tour of Sri Lanka, James Faulkner dished out his maiden hat-trick in ODIs, which also turned out to be Australia’s second hat-trick against Sri Lanka in the 50-over format after Daniel Christian’s achievement in 2012.

He brought forth his skills and dismissed Kusal Perera, Angelo Matthews and Thissara Perera in consecutive deliveries. Kusal tried to reverse-sweep him and was pinned in front of the wickets. Angelo Matthews tried to clear the long-off boundary, but found Moises Henriques’ safe hands.

Thisara Perera couldn’t read Faulkner’s slower delivery and consequently, his stumps were shattered. Even after the left-armer’s brilliant display of death bowling, Sri Lanka posted a target of 289 runs for the Kangaroos to trace down.

Steve Smith’s men floundered big time during the chase and lost wickets way too frequently to garner any sort of momentum. Despite Matthew Wade’s fighting knock, Australia stumbled to a score of 206 runs and lost the game by 82 runs.