Though Ireland lost their last group 1 Super 12s match to New Zealand at Adelaide on November 4, 2022, they had something to cheer about as left-arm pacer Josh Little picked a hat-trick for them.
This was the second hat-trick of this T20 World Cup 2022, with UAE’s Kartik Meiyappan taking the first one against Sri Lanka.
Irish captain Andy Balbirnie won the toss and chose to bowl first. After a decent start from Finn Allen (32 in 18 balls) and Devon Conway (28), captain Kane Williamson, whose bat was quiet for the better part of the tournament, hit 61 in 35 balls with 3 sixes and 5 fours.
Daryl Mitchell hit 31* in 21 balls as New Zealand finished on 185/6 in 20 overs.
The highlight of Ireland's bowling was Josh Little (3/22) who dismissed Kane Williamson on the second ball of the 19th over and then removed James Neesham and Mitchell Santner to pick up his first hat-trick in T20Is.
Check out the video here:
In the reply, Ireland got a flying start as Paul Stirling (37) and Andy Balbirnie (30) added 68 runs in the first 8 overs.
However, once they both got out, Kiwi spin twins Ish Sodhi and Mitchell Santner picked two wickets each, and with Lockie Ferguson taking 3/22, Ireland was restricted to just 150/9 in 20 overs and lost by 35 runs.
With this win, New Zealand finished at the top of the Group 1 points table with 7 points from 5 matches.
The cricket fraternity was all praises for Ireland’s Josh Little and lauded him on Twitter for his brilliant hat-trick achievement.
Here are the tweets:
