Luck of the Irish: Little goes big in Adelaide with a T20 World Cup hat-trick
HAT-TRICK! Ireland pacer Josh Little rips through New Zealand middle-order | T20WC 2022
Watch all three wickets as Ireland fast bowler Josh Little takes a hat-trick against New Zealand in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022.
Little picked up the hat-trick when he dismissed three New Zealand batters with consecutive deliveries from the penultimate over of their clash at the Adelaide Oval on Friday, joining team-mate Curtis Campher as Ireland players to have registered the rare feat.
New Zealand make semi-finals with Ireland triumph | Match Highlights | T20WC 2022
Match highlights: Ireland pacer took a stunning hat-trick but New Zealand proved too good with a 35-run victory in their match at the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022.
The left-armer picked up the big scalps of Kane Williamson, Jimmy Neesham and Mitchell Santner in the 19th over of the match against New Zealand, with consecutive LBW decisions on the final two deliveries clinching the unlikely achievement.
It means Little finishes the T20 World Cup with an impressive 11 scalps, with his figures of 3/22 against New Zealand meaning the 23-year-old finished with a total of 7/59 from 11 overs against the Kiwis, England and Australia.
Little's heroics overshadowed a return to form by Williamson as the New Zealand captain hit 61 from just 35 deliveries to help his side put on 185/6 after being sent into bat by Ireland captain Andy Balbirnie.
The Kiwi captain showed glimpses of his best during his innings, finding the middle of the bat on numerous occasions until he was undone by Little.
We are the only team to take more than one men's T20 World Cup hat-trick 🎩#IREvNZ #T20WorldCup #BackingGreen ☘️🏏 pic.twitter.com/XtDyVH8LHq
— Cricket Ireland (@cricketireland) November 4, 2022
Campher's hat-trick at last year's event came against the Netherlands as he picked up the wickets of Colin Ackermann, Ryan ten Doeschate, Scott Edwards and Roelof van der Merwe to complete an even rarer double hat-trick.
Campher takes four wickets in four balls
Curtis Campher claims four wickets in four deliveries to run through the Netherlands batting line-up
There has now been a total of six hat-tricks at T20 World Cups over the years, with two of them coming at this year's event in Australia.
UAE spinner Karthik Meiyappan picked up the first hat-trick in Australia during his side's loss to Sri Lanka in Geelong in the First Round.
Meiyappan takes first hat-trick of tournament | T20WC 2022