T20 World Cup: It is really a proud moment, says UAE hat trick hero Meiyappan

The UAE found Sri Lanka too hot to handle in cold weather conditions as the Asian champions side bounced back from their embarrassing defeat to Namibia to outclass CP Rizwan's team in the ICC T20 World Cup on Tuesday.

The batting unit may have looked like fish out of water against the speed, movement and the guile of the Sri Lankan bowlers, slumping to 73 all out while chasing 153 in Geelong, Australia, but it was a UAE bowler that entered the record books.

Karthik Meiyappan, the 22-year-old talented leg-spinner, became the first UAE cricketer and only the fifth man in history after Brett Lee, Curtis Campher, Wanindu Hasaranga and Kagiso Rabada to take a hat trick in a T20 World Cup.

An astonishing feat for a youngster who could not take his eyes off Virat Kohli and Ab de Villiers at the RCB breakfast table after being picked by the franchise as a net bowler for the 2020 IPL in the UAE.

On Tuesday, Meiyappan decimated the Sri Lankan middle-order with a vicious combination of flight, turn and drift.

Dasun Shanaka's team were looking set for a big score at 117 for two in the 15th over after being put into bat.

But Meiyappan (4-0-19-3) turned the match on its head by dismissing Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Charith Asalanka and skipper Shanaka in successive balls.

After Rajapaksa was caught while trying to go for a big shot, Asalanka was caught behind by Meiyappan's childhood friend, Vriitiya Aravind, the UAE's wicketkeeper-batsman.

Then skipper Shanaka was clean bowled by a beautifully disguised wrong'un, leaving the Sri Lankans in complete disarray.

"It still hasn't sunk in, the fact that I've got a hat trick in a T20 World Cup, and to become the fifth bowler to do so," Meiyappan said.

"It is really a proud moment and feels amazing. But, like I said, it would have been much greater and much better for me if we had won the game tonight."

How it happened

Meiyappan then revealed how he foxed three of the best players Sri Lanka have produced in recent years.

"First up against Rajapaksa, I think the length side was long boundary for him. I thought he would take me down over there because he was -- I think he was 5-on-5, something like that. I started to push it around bowling a long game, and he tried to cover coverage but he sliced it. Straight to Kashif in the boundary. That was the first one," he said.

"And then Asalanka walked in. That was a no brainer for me. I was going to bowl around and straight up. Vriitya took an amazing catch.

"And when Dasun walked in, I was going through my emotions of being a hat trick, but all I wanted to do was bowl at the stumps. And whatever happens after that, it is not in my hands. But again I just bowled around him and I think he picked it as a leg-in, tried to go over cover."

Looking ahead

Meiyappan said the UAE would now look to work hard in their attempt to qualify for the ODI World Cup next year following the team's second straight loss in Australia, which has left their Super 12 hopes hanging by a thread.

"Obviously making the team to be in the (T20) World Cup was an achievement in itself," he said.