Curtis Campher, Mark Adair give Netherlands a harsh reality check

In a nutshell

Curtis Campher became only the third bowler in T20Is to claim four wickets in four consecutive balls as Ireland got their World Cup campaign off to a winning start, beating Netherlands by seven wickets. Pieter Seelaar's side were bowled out for only 106 and Ireland ended up tracking the runs down with 4.5 overs to spare.

Slow, rocky start for Netherlands

The match for Netherlands started with Ben Cooper's run-out in the first over Joshua Little then struck in the fifth over to get rid of Bas de Leede, and Netherlands could never recover from those wickets. Ending the powerplay at 25/2 after opting to bat, the runs trickled in for the next four overs, with Campher's opening over ironically being the most expensive up until this point in the game.

The Curtis Campher over

After a 12-run first over, captain Andrew Balbirnie brought on Campher from the other end and it worked wonders for his side. Campher's four wickets in four balls all but sealed the match for Ireland, and the first and third of his wickets registered with the help of successful DRS reviews.

The first to go was Colin Ackermann, whose glove down the legside wasn't spotted by the on-field umpire. Ryan ten Doeschate was next, playing all around a straight ball. Scott Edwards was at the receiving end of a hat-trick, the DRS review taking a bit of zip off the moment, Camphor needed no help from the TV umpire to get the wicket of Roelof van der Merwe, who was bowled.

Max O'Dowd's one-man show

The opener stood at the non-striker's end while all the histrionics happened at the other, and ticked along to a steady 51 off 47 balls, hitting 7 fours in the process. But he got out in the 17th over to Mark Adair, who picked another couple of wickets in the last over and made sure that Netherlands were bowled off the final ball of the innings in an emphatic finish.

Steady run chase, and then not

Kevin O'Brien and Andrew Balbirnie fell inside a steady powerplay (38 for 2) but things changed when Paul Stirling (30*) was joined by Gareth Delany. The No. 4 batter edged his first ball but it fell short of slip, but there was no turning back from thereon. Delany hit 5 fours and 2 sixes, finishing with 44 off 29 balls to set up a quick run chase, but was bowled by Seelar with 12 more to get. It was only fair that Campher came to the crease and hit the winning runs.

Brief Scores: Netherlands 106 all out in 20 overs (O'Dowd 51; Campher 4-26) lost to Ireland 107/3 in 15.1 overs (Delany 44, Stirling 30*) by seven wickets