T20 World Cup 2021: Irish seamer Curtis Campher creates history, Sri Lanka pick up comfortable win

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Liam O'Loughlin
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Curtis Campher

There were plenty of talking points following the second day of the T20 World Cup - but nobody will dominate headlines quite like Irish seamer Curtis Campher.

In their first group stage clash, Ireland cruised past Netherlands to win by seven wickets, but it was the double hat-trick from Campher that created plenty of buzz. 

In doing so, Campher became the first man to achieve the feat in a T20 World Cup, and just the third in T20I history after Lasith Malinga and Rashid Khan.

Later on the second day of play, Sri Lanka picked up a comfortable win against Namibia, winning by seven wickets with 39 balls remaining.

Here's our full wrap of the day two of the T20 World Cup.

IRELAND 3/107 def. NETHERLANDS 106

Things got off to a shaky start for The Netherlands in their first game of the tournament, with opener Ben Cooper (1) run out by Simi Singh in the first over.

Max O'Dowd (51) was able to steady the ship despite wickets falling around him - and four of them happened to come in the same over.

After being hit for 12 off his first over, Curtis Campher (4/26 off 4) quickly bounced back to dismiss four of Netherlands' batsmen in a row. 

Campher sent Colin Ackermann (11) packing first, before taking the scalps of Ryan ten Doeschate, Scott Edwards and Roelof van der Merwe all for golden ducks.

Check out Campher's double hat-trick below, courtesy of Fox Cricket. 

His effort with the ball helped Ireland keep their opponents to a low total of 106, with Mark Adair (3/9 off 4) also starring with the ball.

Low totals can be tricky to chase down at times, and Ireland may have been feeling a tad nervous when Kevin O'Brien (9) and captain Andrew Balbirnie (8) both fell for single-figure scores.

But as he so often does, Paul Stirling (30*) steadied the ship with a classy unbeaten knock, and was partnered for a large part by Gareth Delaney (44 off 27) in a quickfire innings.

Ireland passed the total with 4.1 overs remaining to win by seven wickets, and have now placed themselves in the box-seat to make the Super 12s heading into their clash with Sri Lanka on Thursday. 

SRI LANKA 3/100 def. NAMIBIA 96

Sri Lanka were expected to make light work of Namibia in their first group stage match on Tuesday morning (AEDT), and that's exactly what they did.

Namibia put up a solid fight early with bat in hand, making their way to 3/73 in the 13th over, but from there they completely collapsed.

The underdogs lost their next seven wickets for just 23 runs as the likes of Maheesh Theekshana (3/25 off 4) and Lahiru Kumara (2/9 off 3.3) shined with ball in hand.

In the run chase, Sri Lanka lost their first three wickets for just 26 runs as they looked in a spot of bother.

Fortunately, their class prevailed as Avishka Fernando (30* off 28) and Bhanuka Rajapaksa (42* off 27) got them over the line with 39 balls remaining in their innings.

Namibia will take on Netherlands on Wednesday night, while Sri Lanka will take on Ireland in what should be an entertaining match-up given both side's wins in the first game. 

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Liam O'Loughlin Photo
Liam O'Loughlin

Liam is a content producer for The Sporting News Australia.