Cricket: Five-in-a-row for Richard Downs

Rotorua's Richard Downs achieved the rarest of feats at the weekend, bowling a triple hat-trick. Photo/Andrew Warner

You'd have a better chance of being struck by lightning than witnessing what unfolded in the 37th over of a cricket match in Rotorua.

Eastern Pirates medium-pacer Richard Downs took five wickets in five consecutive balls on Saturday.

The order of dismissal was nothing short of poetic: bowled, bowled, bowled, lbw, bowled.

Downs has played cricket for 20 years and said it was hard to believe what happened during the senior reserve match against Geyser 2.

"I got the first two and I have had two wickets [in a row] before.

"I saw the third batter coming and thought I wasn't going to get it, but the third wicket dropped and then the fourth and the fifth and I was wondering when it was going to stop."

He said up until Saturday he had never had a hat-trick before much less five in a row, also known as a triple hat-trick.

"I'm used to getting more runs than I do wickets," the all-rounder said.

Downs said the whole team was swapping handshakes and cheers as the wickets fell.

"By the time we had the second wicket everyone was within 10 feet of the batsmen and they stayed there until the end of the over."

Downs said he tried to keep his deliveries at yorker length during the five-wicket maiden.

"I thought I'll keep trying to get them out and keep going at the stumps, and the yorkers kept coming," he said.

"I don't think I will get anything like that ever again."

Downs also scored the winning runs for his side, with his team chasing down 173 runs in the 40-over match.

"I have never done that before either, scoring the winning runs."

He ended with figures of five wickets for 29 runs off eight overs. He also scored 24 not out with the bat.

The first ball of his last over was blocked by the batsman at the crease, meaning he missed out on six from six.

Downs' younger brother John also played in the match and put the bowling feat down to a fluke.

"He was calling me a tin arse and a fluke, all that kind of thing," Richard said with a laugh.

It is understood Geyser 2 were about 170/4 when Downs bowled the first ball of the 37th over.

Eastern Pirates captain Des Beckett said it was a freakish feat on Saturday at Boord Park.

"I have played cricket for a long time and I have never seen five in a row, it was phenomenal."

He said it was one thing to get five balls on the wickets much less crack them over.

"It was good bowling, he was swinging the ball onto the stumps, they weren't dead straight," he said.

"But the batsmen were found a little bit wanting, they just didn't have a forward defensive shot."

Geyser 2 173/9 (R Campbell 50, G Campbell 26; R Downs 5/29, S Thompson 2/42) lost to Eastern Pirates 180/7 (S Thompson 31, J Downs 29, J Christopherson 27, R Downs 24no; J Rogers 3/36, C Nairn 2/37)