22-year-old UAE leg-spinner Karthik Meiyappan grabbed the headlines as he became the first bowler to take a hat-trick in the ongoing T20 World Cup. Meiyappan is now only the fifth bowler in the history of all T20 World Cups to take a hat-trick.
The youngster who has his roots in Tamil Nadu, India, took his hat-trick on Tuesday against Asia Cup champions Sri Lanka in their preliminary qualifying round game at the Simonds Stadium, Geelong.
His hat trick comprised wickets of Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Charith Asalanka and Dasun Shanaka. Left-hander Rajapaksa and skipper Shanaka are Sri Lanka’s two of the best and in-form,batters, and dismissing them gave UAE a big opening back into the game which seemed to have been slipping when Sri Lanka were 114/2 after 14 overs.
Meiyappan had bowled 2 overs for 14 runs, but UAE needed wickets to stop Sri Lanka to a score which UAE can fancy chasing in what is almost a must-win game after their loss on Monday to the Netherlands.
Meiyappan took his hat trick on the last three balls of the 15th over. First, he had Rajapaksa, who mishit his loft on the off-side and was caught well by the running deep cover fielder, Basil Hameed. It was a nice loopy googly that induced a mishit from Rajapaksa; once again it was a tossed-up delivery which had the next batsman, Asalanka, who was dragged forward to the ball outside off-stump and edged it to the wicket-keeper.
For Shanaka’s wicket, Meiyappan went straight into the stumps with another googly. But Shanaka perhaps played for the leg spin creating a gap between his bat and pad which saw the ball snuck through the gap and hit the top of the stumps. The 22-year-old Meiyappan went on a long celebratory run.
Netizens too got fired up with this brilliant hat trick from Karthik Meiyappan against Sri Lanka. Here are some of the best reactions:
Wowwww…kartick Meiyappan of UAE takes a hattrick and that too against top order batsmen of Lanka… #T20WorldCup2022
— Samip Rajguru (@samiprajguru) October 18, 2022
Chennai-born Karthik Meiyappan, representing the UAE, with the first hat-trick of the #T20WorldCup2022 🔥
— Shrivathsan S (@Shrivathsan1437) October 18, 2022
Karthik Meiyappan takes hat-trick in the T20 World Cup, becoming 5th bowler to do so. #SLvUAE #T20WorldCup2022 #KarthikMeiyappan #UAECricket pic.twitter.com/kzzNbWZBLD
— Mr. Thakur (@ajaythakur15392) October 18, 2022
Karthik Meiyappan is the first player from an associate team to take a hat-trick against a Test team in men’s World Cups (T20Is or ODIs). #UAEvSL #SLvUAE #T20WorldCup2022
— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) October 18, 2022
Mystifying why Karthik Meiyappan has not played more for UAE over the last year or so than he has. Genuine wicket-taker and his hat-trick v Sri Lanka now has just showed it.
— Peter Della Penna (@PeterDellaPenna) October 18, 2022
Meiyappan!!! Omg! Sensational bowling!
Mum: “Well that doesn’t happen very often, does it?”
No, mum. No it doesn’t. #t20worldcup #SLvUAE
— Melinda Farrell (@melindafarrell) October 18, 2022
Take a bow Meiyappan!
What an achievement 🔥@T20WorldCup #Hattrick
— Tabraiz Shamsi (@shamsi90) October 18, 2022
Meiyappan the Caribbean Boy has taken hat Trick against SL 🔥😍#SLvUAE pic.twitter.com/iicybpPQbz
— Mushahid Ahmed (@Sain_Mushahid) October 18, 2022
Did the Meiyappan name just get cleansed in the cricket world? #T20WorldCup #UAE
— Bharat Sundaresan (@beastieboy07) October 18, 2022
Wow…Meiyappan WWW. #T20WorldCup
— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) October 18, 2022
Clean bowling the opposition captain with a googly is, when you think about it, the perfect way to take a hat-trick. Magnificent from Meiyappan
— Ben Jones (@benjonescricket) October 18, 2022
UAE leg-spinner Karthik Meiyappan picked up a hat trick to rattle Sri Lanka.
14.4 – Bhanuka Rajapaksa 5 (8)
14.5 – Charith Asalanka 0 (1)
14.6 – Dasun Shanaka 0 (1)Sri Lanka was in a strong position at 117 for 2 but soon became 120 for 6. @ThePapareSports #T20WorldCup2022 pic.twitter.com/7j4lg3mZxG
— Damith Weerasinghe (@Damith1994) October 18, 2022
Hat-trick against Sri Lanka from UAE’s young leg spinner Karthik Meiyappan.
Performances like these will be more frequent if these teams get a chance to showcase their talent on global level more frequently,ICC and Big 3 have gotta make ODI and T20 World cups more inclusive.
— Akash Kumar Jha (@Akashkumarjha14) October 18, 2022
Hat trick from UAE’s Karthik Meiyappan 😍 Terrific display of bowling from him. UAE making a great comeback in the game. #SLvUAE #T20WorldCup2022
— Robin Aiyuda Uthappa (@robbieuthappa) October 18, 2022
HAT-TRICK ALERT 🚨
Karthik Meiyappan has picked up the first hat-trick of #T20WorldCup 2022 👏
📝 Scorecard: https://t.co/fIoUF5AvN4
Head to our app and website to follow the action 👉 https://t.co/76r3b7l2N0 pic.twitter.com/gjSIhsr9rD
— ICC (@ICC) October 18, 2022
What a spell by Kartik Meiyappan against Sri Lanka – 3/19 in 4 overs. Picked the first Hat-trick of this World Cup, completely bamboozled Sri Lanka. pic.twitter.com/mqLS1x8qEC
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) October 18, 2022
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
Rajapaksa
Asalanka
ShanakaThat is a quality hat-trick. Congratulations Karthik Meiyappan, something to cherish for lifetime 👏🏽 #SLvUAE #T20WorldCup2022 pic.twitter.com/sYB3nIe9I0
— Wasim Jaffer (@WasimJaffer14) October 18, 2022
This guy – leg-spinner Meiyappan could become a t20 globetrotter in coming years..Terrific hat-trick, dismissed 2 of Sri Lanka’s best batsmen..#SLvUAE #T20WorldCup2022
— Jatin Khandelwal (@jr_khandelwal) October 18, 2022
