Cricket Highlights, 18 Oct: ICC Men’s T20 World Cup (Match 03 & 04)

The 3rd match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 between Ireland and Netherlands and the 4th match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 between Sri Lanka and Namibia rolled on the field yesterday. Continue reading the article to know about the interesting happenings of the games.

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 – Match 03 (Ireland vs Netherlands)

In the 3rd match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021, Ireland won by 7 wickets with 29 balls to spare against the Netherlands courtesy of Curtis Campher’s double hat trick at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi. The Netherlands won the toss and elected to bat first. At the end of 9 overs, they lost 2 wickets and collected 50 runs.

But when the tenth over of their batting appeared, the Irish pacer Campher turned everything upside down. Colin Ackermann (11) was caught behind the wicket in the second ball of the over, while Ryan ten Doeschate became lbw in the next ball. Scott Edwards became lbw again in the next ball. Campher bowled Roelof van der Merwe with the next ball. The scoreboard of the Netherlands went from 51 for 2 to 51 for 6 in a blink of an eye.

This is the first time a bowler has scored a double hat-trick in the Twenty20 World Cup with four wickets off four balls. He is also the first bowler to pick up a hat-trick in Ireland’s T20 history. Such a feat has been seen only three times in the history of T20I cricket. The previous two were Rashid Khan (against Ireland in 2019) and Lasith Malinga (against New Zealand in 2019).

In the end, the Netherlands were bowled out for 106 in the allotted 20 overs by the Irish bowlers. Opener Max O’Dowd top-scored with 51 off 47 balls. Besides, the captain Pieter Seelaar scored 21 runs. Campher took the highest number of 4 wickets for Ireland. Mark Adair took 3 wickets and Joshua Little took 1 wicket each.

Chasing an easy target of 107 runs, Ireland lost 3 wickets and reached the victory port in 15.1 overs. Gareth Delany played an innings of 44 off 29 balls with 5 fours and 2 sixes. Apart from that, opener Paul Stirling remained unbeaten on 30 runs.

Ireland is second in the points table of Group A after winning this match. On the other hand, the defeated Netherlands is now in 3rd place on the points table.

Scoreboard:
Netherlands – 106/10 (20.0)
Ireland – 107/3 (15.1)
Result – Ireland won by 7 wickets
Player of the match – Curtis Campher

ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021 – Match 04 (Sri Lanka vs Namibia)

In the second match of the day, Sri Lanka won by 7 wickets with 39 balls to spare in a low-scoring match against Namibia at the Zayed Cricket Stadium in Abu Dhabi. After losing the toss and opting to bat first, Namibia was bowled out for 96 in 19.3 overs.

Craig Williams scored the highest 29 runs for Namibia. Captain Gerhard Erasmus scored 20 runs and JJ Smit scored unbeaten 12 runs. No other batsman could manage to pick up the double-digit score for Namibia. For the Lankans, Maheesh Theekshana took the maximum number of 3 wickets. Lahiru Kumara and Wanindu Hasaranga took two wickets each while Chamika Karunaratne and Dushmantha Chameera took one wicket each.

Chasing an easy target of 97 runs, Sri Lanka lost 3 wickets and reached the target in 13.3 overs. For the team, Bhanuka Rajapaksa played an unbeaten inning of 42 off 27 balls. Avishka Fernando scored 30 runs and Kusal Perera scored 11 runs. Bernard Scholtz, Ruben Trumpelmann, and JJ Smit took one wicket each for Namibia.

Sri Lanka is at the top of the points table in Group A after winning the match. On the other hand, Namibia is now at the bottom of the points table after the defeat.

Scoreboard:
Namibia – 96/10 (19.3)
Sri Lanka – 100/3 (13.3)
Result – Sri Lanka won by 7 wickets
Player of the match – Maheesh Theekshana

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