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Karthik Meiyappan lit up the Twenty20 World Cup with a hat-trick on Tuesday but it was in vain as Sri Lanka dismissed the United Arab Emirates for just 73 to get their campaign back on track.
(Reuters) - United Arab Emirates spinner Karthik Meiyappan dismissed Sri Lanka's Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Charith Asalanka and captain Dasun Shanaka to claim a hat-trick in a Twenty20 World Cup Group A match in Australia on Tuesday.
Karthik Meiyappan of the United Arab Emirates took the first hat-trick of the Twenty20 World Cup in Australia on Tuesday and only the fifth ever in the history of the tournament.
The left-handed Frylinck and JJ Smit, who made an unbeaten 31, lifted Namibia to 163-7 with their 69-run seventh-wicket stand, after being invited to bat first in Geelong. Sri Lanka were then bowled out for 108 in 19 overs with David Wiese, Frylinck, Bernard Scholtz and Ben Shikongo taking two wickets each in the team's first of three opening-round matches.
Namibia will look to extend their meteoric rise in the world of cricket when they come across Sri Lanka, who will be brimming with confidence after their Asia Cup victory last month. Round one will begin with a bang as the first of 45 games will pit Group A favourites, Sri Lanka, against Namibia, a team with solid ambitions of making it to the Super 12 stage. The two teams are set to compete on Sunday against one another at a significant competition for second time.
Reigning Asian champions Sri Lanka will take on minnows Namibia in a Group A first round match at the Kardinia Park in Geelong, Victoria. Temperatures at Geelong, where the global showpiece starts on Sunday, have been hovering around 16 degrees Celsius (60 degrees Fahrenheit) and plunging to as low as four in the evening. The 2014 champions head into the fixture as favourites, having defeated Namibia during the T20 World Cup last year. After losing to the Lankan Lions, Namibia then defeated the Netherlands and Ireland to qualify from the first round. They'll hope for similar, if not better fate this time as well.
Namibia captain Gerhard Erasmus expressed concern Saturday about the cold weather in Australia, but insisted the African nation could set the Twenty20 World Cup on fire by upsetting Sri Lanka in the tournament opener. Temperatures at Geelong, where the global showpiece starts on Sunday, have been hovering around 16 degrees Celsius (60 degrees Fahrenheit) and plunging to as low as four in the evening. That is nippy for a Namibian side more used to balmy weather at home this time of year, and Erasmus admitted it was a shock to the system.
A confident Sri Lanka open the Twenty20 World Cup on Sunday fresh from being crowned Asian champions, but face negotiating a tricky preliminary round to join the big guns in the main draw. They kick off the global showpiece in Geelong against a Namibian team looking to spring another surprise after making the Super 12 stage on their tournament debut last year. Originally scheduled to take place in 2020 before being moved because of Covid, the eighth edition of the event begins with a double-header at the 36,000 capacity Kardinia Park outside Melbourne.