A hat-trick of hat-tricks?

Glenn McGrath and Shane Warne have one apiece, Brett Lee has two (ODI and T20I), and if all goes to plan, Seven Hills-Toongabbie RSL Cricket Club allrounder Steven Wong will have three hat-tricks to his name by tea time this Saturday.

Wong picked up hat-tricks in back-to-back rounds of B7, Parramatta District Cricket Association action in Sydney’s west, but was quick to downplay the feat.

“I was probably a bit lucky with them,” he told cricket.com.au. “Both guys were trying to slog (the hat-trick ball) out of the park and I was just lucky that they missed.”

His first hat-trick, against the second-ranked Wentworthville Leagues, may not have happened at all, with Wong’s entrance into the attack delayed after arriving late to the ground.

“Yeah, I think they were pretty dirty on me for a while there,” he grinned.

Those frowns were turned upside down however when Wong snared his third wicket in three balls, nipping a length delivery in to clip the top of off-stump.

It’s this movement that Wong credits with his latter-season success.

“I was bowling outswingers at the start of the year, but that wasn’t working because no-one was edging them,” he said. “So I switched to innies and the batsmen couldn’t adjust.”

His second haul was a straightforward affair, cleaning up two middle-order bats before a good catch in front of the wicket completed his second hat-trick in as many matches.

Wong, who returned to cricket this year having not played competitively since he was a teenager, has had a season to remember, picking up 35 wickets at an average of 10.4, along with 364 runs at 52 – including two centuries.

But he’s not done there.

The Seven Hills-Toongabbie product took 3-0 off his nine deliveries last weekend, and will have the chance for his third hat-trick when thrown the ball on Saturday.

Such is Wong’s form at the moment that, when pressed about the delivery Saturday’s batsman can expect first up, he was eager to share his plans.

“Probably just start it outside off and move it back in. Hopefully he misses it.”

Why mess with a winning formula?

Seven Hills Toongabbie go into this weekend sitting top of the ladder, having not lost since round two.