‘Remember the name’ – Twitter lauds UAE’S Karthik Meiyappan as he registers first hat-trick of 20-20 World Cup 2022

Sri Lanka and United Arab Emirates are locking horns in the Group 1 game of the ongoing 20-20 World Cup 2022. In the game, the UAE has won the toss and elected to bowl first citing dew factor in mind. However, the decision was proving costly as the 2014 winners had a decent start. In the first 10 overs, they scored 84/1, losing the wicket of Kusal Mendis (18).

In the first 10 overs, leg-spinner Karthik Meiyappan bowled the eighth over of the game to start his spell. He gave away 10 runs including a six from Pathum Nissanka. The leg-spinner came back to bowl the 14th over of the game and tightened the things up. He only gave away three runs marking his comeback in the game. What followed after this will be remembered in the history for a long time.

He bowled his third over in the 16th over of the Lankan innings. In the last three balls of the over, he took the wickets of Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Charitha Asalanka, and skipper Dasun Shanaka. Rajapkasa tried to hit a six over deep cover but was caught by Kashif Dauf. The next two batters, Asalanka and Shanaka were caught behind and clean bowled respectively.

With this, he became the first player from the middle east to take a hat-trick in the 20-20 World Cup. Notably, the middle east-based team is playing their maiden 20-20 World Cup.

The hat-trick hasn’t sunk in yet: Karthik Meiyappan

The India-born spoke to the broadcasters after the first innings. He said “It’s a great feeling and it really hasn’t sunk in yet. I was trying to take the ball away from the leftie, I was lucky that he sliced it to deep cover. Asalanka, it was easy for me to bowl a wrong’un, and he nicked it, but Shanaka, that was a special ball, to get it through bat and pad. That was the biggest one. There wasn’t so much purchase off the wicket, but it was important to keep it wicket to wicket, if they miss I hit.”

This is how Twitter reacted

The boy from Chennai, playing for Uae, scripts history in Geelong by taking the hat-trick in the T20 World Cup, remember the name, he is just 22-years-old – Take a bow, Karthik Meiyappan. pic.twitter.com/IJ9JRJQmI7

— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) October 18, 2022

https://twitter.com/WasimJaffer14/status/1582302993168273408?s=20&t=e0jYXbMxclqE7ca3mOkYAA

https://twitter.com/Cricketracker/status/1582301540936581121?s=20&t=ItJt_StnCdydlNj-vZ9HqQ

https://twitter.com/cricbuzz/status/1582300222365265920?s=20&t=qd2zyE4TML-0y0bToyqwVA

Well done Karthik Meiyappan. Sometimes you get hat-tricks with batters slogging three into the deep. This was a properly earned hat-trick.

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) October 18, 2022

Karthik Meiyappan became only the fifth bowler to bag a hat-trick in the history of the Men’s T20 World Cup.#UAE #SLvUAE #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/HOggeAgW8q

— Circle of Cricket (@circleofcricket) October 18, 2022

https://twitter.com/Shrivathsan1437/status/1582302367491690496?s=20&t=qd2zyE4TML-0y0bToyqwVA

https://twitter.com/ADKRiders/status/1582306450986381313?s=20&t=qd2zyE4TML-0y0bToyqwVA

https://twitter.com/robbieuthappa/status/1582304742470193152?s=20&t=qd2zyE4TML-0y0bToyqwVA

https://twitter.com/Rajeev_Bharat/status/1582302117884481536?s=20&t=qd2zyE4TML-0y0bToyqwVA