Curtis Campher delivers another World Cup moment for Ireland

NICK HOWSON: The 22-year-old finally arrived on the T20I stage with four wickets in four balls to help beat Netherlands in a crucial group stage clash in Abu Dhabi

This is a men's T20 World Cup all about opportunity. A chance for Oman to showcase itself after being parachuted in as co-hosts. A moment in time for Papua New Guinea at their first global ICC event and Namibia in their first appearance in this competition.

Day one belonged to Zeeshan Maqsood and Chris Greaves, who climbed onto platforms they have rarely come close to gracing and showed what they can do.

This is not a competition where discovering who the best teams and players in the world are is a particularly interesting and key objective. Because soon enough, another tournament will come along to confuse the argument.

Instead, this is about new stories and talent not normally exposed to this level or pressure on a regular basis.

Curtis Campher is no shrinking violet at international level. He averages 51.28 with the bat in ODIs and has eight wickets in 10 matches with the ball. He's more than comfortable.

Those returns started with a string of fine performances against world champions England during the behind-closed-doors ODI series last summer. Two fifties and five wickets later he'd announced himself. If not for David Willey's new-ball bursts he would have been the player of the series.

Previous to the opening game in Abu Dhabi, Campher had yet to reproduce that form in the 20-over format. Three single figures scores and three wickets in four outings represented an underwhelming start.

Quality fast-bowling allrounders are prized assets in T20 cricket. Just look at the biggest signings from the last IPL auction and you'll see Chris Morris at the top, followed by Kyle Jamieson, with Tom Curran and Nathan Coulter-Nile further down in the top 10.

If you can get them to tick, provide four overs and some fast runs down the order you very quickly have balance, flexibility, options, and a potential match-winner.

Ireland got an insight in the role Campher could play if not for the rest of his international career, but certainly the remainder of the competition. He produced a four-ball blitz Irish cricket may never see again and another World Cup moment which they'll be talking about for years to come. Because they really need another one.

The Irish's last four men's T20 World Cup campaigns have been either ended by Netherlands or rain. Bar an unprecedented change in climate, they have ruled out suffering from that painful feeling once and for all. Though Sri Lanka are next, victory over Namibia will see them reach the main event after this orange whitewash.

On the basis of this performance, they'll be more than competitive when the tournament is cut to a dozen.

For all the merits of this phase of the competition, this never felt like an intense World Cup occasion. Crowds remain poor and pitches sluggish Taking nothing away from the teams competing, but this doesn't feel like the competition proper, as it should do. Maybe we should blame Covid for that.

But Campher produced a performance fitting of any stage. Netherlands looked quite content at 50 for 2 at the start of the 10th over, keeping wickets in hand for the final throes when conditions had been fully established. That makes sense.

When a bowler then rips through your lineup, taking out your best batters, suddenly not having runs in the bank after the power play looks folly. Josh Little was getting a bit out of the surface which appeared to be playing worse than it looked. By the end, pace-off and cross-seam deliveries were the way to go.

While celebrating Campher's effort, it would be foolish to ignore his good fortune. By his own admission, he isn't 100 per cent fit after having ankle surgery earlier in the year. He played three times against United Arab Emirates and in two warm-ups but he's still short of peak condition.

That was reflective of his first few deliveries of that famous over, even the ball that got Colin Ackermann was a leg-side wide which should have been plundered into the Persian Gulf coast and was instead feathered into the gloves of Neil Rock.

^{Campher came in to polish off the chase of 107 with 29 balls remaining}

He didn't really find his line and length until the middle of the over when he got Ten Doeschate, whose disappointing retirement year continued, and Scott Edwards for golden ducks. The latter had to wait for DRS to confirm the dismissal, which was inexplicably given not out on the field.

And even Roelof van der Merwe will feel aggrieved after he got out to a rank wide delivery which he chopped onto his stumps. Suddenly, Campher had four wickets and a place in history alongside Lasith Malinga, Rashid Khan and Anuradha Doddaballapur. Taking nothing away from the lad, but he'll bowl a better set at some stage later down the line in his career.

Both of these sides know what a World Cup moment feels like. They've acted as giant killers in the past and they'll undoubtedly do so again as the gap continues to shrink.

This was undoubtedly another one to add to that glorious list. In a clash between these two sides, it was Ireland's turn to celebrate knowing they have one foot in the Super 12. The Dutch have it all to do.

Curtis Campher made day two his own. It'll be someone else's turn tomorrow.