Wanindu Hasaranga weaves magic to register a hat-trick of five-wicket hauls in ICC World Cup Qualifiers

Another day, another qualifier and most importantly another fifer, Wanindu Hasaranga has made the ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier tournament his very own slaughterhouse as he razed through the Irish batting line-up despite going for a few runs in a lopsided battle.

This was the third time in a row that he claimed a fifer, a very rare feat in international cricket. The first one came against UAE followed by another five-wicket haul against Oman where the latter crumbled in front of a raging Wani. Ireland chose to take him on and was successful till a certain point in time before the RCB leggie brought out his mighty weapons to get the better of the Irishmen.

Hasaranga’s first victim of the day was Andrew Balbirnie as he failed to pick up a floater on the off-stump with ball trickling back in, catching his feet plumb in front of the stumps. Following suit with another pearler, this time Hasaranga clinched the big scalp of Harry Tector as the latter was outdone by a dead ringer of the delivery that bagged Balbirnie.

Gareth Delany was the next victim in Hasaranga’s firing line as his failure to pick a googly saw the cherry crashing onto his timbre from outside the off-stump while Mark Adair holed out to Dasun Shanaka at short mid-wicket, trying to take on a tossed up delivery from Hasaranga.

He finished things off with a dream catch as Josh Little played it back to him and he was quick to pounce upon the opportunity. With Hasaranga leading the show, Ireland were skittled out for a paltry 192, conceding the match by 133 runs.