Tracing Karthik Meiyappan's journey: From Chennai to bagging hat-trick for UAE against Sri Lanka in 20-20 World Cup 2022

Karthik Meiyappan (Image Source: Twitter)

The 20-20 World Cup group stage matches are ongoing and the teams participating are giving it all to make it to the next round. On October 18, Tuesday, UAE and Sri Lanka locked horns at Geelong and the Dashun Shanaka-led team were forced to bat first in the game.

However, what caught the eye in the first inning was Karthik Meiyappan’s hat-trick in the 15th over of the match. The leg spinner, who was yet to make a name in the international arena, stunned the crowd with his unbelievable feat.

To comment more on the feat, Meiyappan picked the wickets of in-form players Bhanuka Rajapaksa, Charith Asalanka and skipper Dasun Shanaka. The lep spinner became the first-ever bowler from UAE to pick a hat trick in the format and the history of UAE cricket will remember his name forever.

Here’s the video:

#PAKvIND
Karthik Meiyappan snares UAE’s first hat-trick in Men’s T20Is #T20WorldCup #CricketReels #Cricket pic.twitter.com/k9AooBSJAN

— ABBAS KHAN ADILL (@76z80) October 18, 2022

The journey to UAE

The 22-year-old, born in Chennai, Meiyappan went on to debut for the UAE national team on December 8, 2019, against USA in the ODI format.  The youngster made a stunning debut in the T20I format against Ireland in October 2021 and bagged a four-for right away.

Since then, it has been only an upward journey for the young leggie and he has racked up 21 wickets in the format in 12 matches. Regarding the ODIs, Meiyappan has 10 wickets in 8 matches to his name and also has a four-for.

To add more to the match, Sri Lanka, who lost the first match against Namibia, failed with the bat and scored a decent total of 152 runs on the board for the loss of 8 wickets at the end of 20 overs. Pathum Nissanka, who opened the batting for the team, top-scored with his 60-ball 76 while the rest of the batters collapsed in quick succession.

Dhananjaya de Silva, who came in at number 3, scored a decent 33 and backed Nissanka in the middle overs. However, the feat from the youngster changed the gameplay and Sri Lanka collapsed towards the end scoring less than what was expected from a strong side.