UAE leg-spinner Karthik Meiyappan bagged the first hat-trick of ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 against Sri Lanka in Geelong on Tuesday, October 18.
Meiyappan, born and brought up in India’s fourth largest city – Chennai, is the first player from an associate team to pick up a hat-trick against the Test team in men’s World Cups.
The 22-year-old began the proceeding by getting Bhanuka Rajapaksa caught off the fourth ball in the 15th over. He dismissed Charith Asalanka off the next ball, caught behind. Meiyappan then cleaned up the Sri Lankan captain Dasun Shanaka for a golden duck and completed his hat-trick.
The leggie finished with impressive figures of 3 for 19 in his quota of four overs.
Here’s the video:
22-year-old Karthik Meiyappan picked the first hat-trick of the T20 World Cup 2022…#T20WorldCup #Yellove #SLvUAE #T20WorldCup2022 pic.twitter.com/9Xqhhd5y7S
— Rahul Sisodia (@Sisodia19Rahul) October 18, 2022
However, Meiyappan’s joy of taking a hat-trick was short-lived as Sri Lanka thrashed UAE by 79 runs and knocked them out of the tournament. Chasing the Islanders’ competitive total of 152/8, UAE could not put up a fight and got bundled out for a paltry 73 in 17.1 overs. Dushmantha Chameera (3 for 15) and Wanindu Hasaranga (3 for 8) broke the back of UAE innings.
Sri Lanka will next play Netherlands in a must-win encounter at the same venue on Thursday morning (October 20), while UAE will compete with Namibia in the afternoon. Both Namibia and Sri Lanka have won a game each among the Group A teams and are below Netherlands in the points table.
