Joshua Little on Friday became only the second Ireland bowler to take a hat-trick in T20 World Cup after Curtis Campher, who achieved the feat last year in Dubai. In the 19th over of match, Little removed New Zealand captain Kane Williamson (61), James Neesham (0) and Mitchell Santner to complete only the second hat-trick of the tournament. Little finished the innings with an impressive figures of 3 for 22 and has now taken the most number of wickets in T20Is in a calendar year. The Irish bowler had 39 wickets. View this post on Instagram A post shared by ICC (@icc) "I guess it was a little bit of tail back into the left-handers, wanted to execute it two times in a row and I got lucky to have managed it. I think I was a bit short early on, then went a bit greedy and went full," Little said after the match. Congrats to Josh Little who is heading off on a development opportunity with the Chennai Super Kings in the early stages of the upcoming IPL. “The experience as a net bowler for CSK should be fantastic. #GoWellJosh ☘️🏏” That was a tweet this March by Cricket Ireland. Joshua Little has indeed gone well since then. 👏👏👏 Congrats to Josh Little who is heading off on a development opportunity with the Chennai Super Kings in the early stages of the upcoming IPL. The experience as a net bowler for CSK should be fantastic. #GoWellJosh ☘️🏏 pic.twitter.com/5aUFwfZkAp — Cricket Ireland (@cricketireland) March 7, 2022 In 2017, the then 17-year-old was selected to play in a series in India but Little chose to skip it to focus on academics at school. “I got picked to play against Afghanistan in Greater Noida, Delhi. [But] it was an important time for school, and I had to give the cricket a miss and try to do well in my exams. That was my decision. I got a lot of stick for it on social media and stuff,” he had told ICC website then. In September 2016, he had already become the second-youngest player to feature in a T20. At the world cup stage, against England, he has produced a stunner. The left-arm seamer who reckons his wrist-snap at release confuses the batsmen as it can come out at a slightly more pace than they expect. He is right. Jos Buttler flashed but edged behind. Alex Hales couldn’t control a pull to a ball angled across him and was snapped up at square-leg.
