In the T20 World Cup 2022 match against Scotland, Curtis Campher and George Dockrell emulated and set multiple records to seal an out-of-nowhere win for Ireland.
Chasing 177 against Scotland at the Bellerive Oval, Hobart, Ireland found themselves reeling at 61-4 in the 10th over when Dockrell joined Campher. Scotland, who had felled the West Indies in their previous match, must have fancied their chances against Ireland, who had been outplayed by Zimbabwe.
But Ireland did not lose another wicket. Campher remained unbeaten, having smashed seven fours and two sixes in a 32-ball 72. One salient feature of Campher’s innings was the fact that he failed to score off only three of the 32 balls he faced. Even off one of these three, he ran a leg-bye. At the other end, Dockrell played the perfect foil, and emerged with a 27-ball 39, with four fours and a six.
Campher and Dockrell added an unbroken 119, in 9.3 overs. This is now the joint-highest fifth-wicket stand in men’s Twenty20 Internationals. They emulated Shoaib Malik and Misbah-ul-Haq, who had set that record against Australia in Johannesburg the first ever T20 World Cup, in 2007.
For perspective, the next-highest fifth-wicket stand for Ireland is 59 (less than half of what Campher and Dockrell added), between Kevin O’Brien and Greg Thompson against Hong Kong in Bready in 2016.
Campher’s innings is now the highest for Ireland at the Men’s T20 World Cup. He went past Paul Stirling’s 60, scored against Zimbabwe in Sylhet in the 2014 edition. In fact, since 2014, only Gareth Delany (44 against the Netherlands) and Andy Balbirnie (41 against Sri Lanka) – both in Abu Dhabi in 2021 – have scored more than Dockrell’s unbeaten 39.
Earlier in the day, Campher dismissed Matthew Cross and Richie Berrington to return figures of 2-0-9-2, thus becoming the second cricketer to take two wickets and make a 70-plus score at the men’s T20 World Cup. Shane Watson, the only other person, did it twice in the space of three days at the R. Premadasa Stadium in Colombo in 2012. Unlike Watson, however, Campher remained unbeaten, and conceded under 10 runs.
However, there was a record for Scotland as well, earlier in the day. Michael Jones’s 86 is now not only the highest at the T20 World Cup for Scotland but the highest from any Associate nation. Jones went past Berrington’s Scottish record of 70 (against Papua New Guinea, Al Amerat 2021) and Tom Cooper’s unbeaten 72 for the Netherlands against Zimbabwe in Sylhet 2014.
