JOSH LITTLE left the best for his last over of the T20 World Cup, taking a stunning hat-trick at the Adelaide Oval to cap a superb personal campaign as Ireland bowed out with a creditable 35-run loss to New Zealand.

Left-armer Little, who has led the Ireland attack over the past three weeks with pace, accuracy and intelligence, took his wickets tally to 11 from seven matches as he had Kane Williamson caught in the deep and followed up with two plumb lbws.

It was the second Ireland hat-trick at T20 World Cups, though not quite as jaw-dropping as Curtis Campher’s four in four balls against the Netherlands last year, and coming in the 19th over it helped restrict New Zealand to 185-6.

When Paul Stirling and skipper Andy Balbirnie climbed into the first two overs of spinners Mitchell Santner and Ish Sodhi, to the tune of 29 runs, Ireland were 68-0 after eight and had the perfect base to claim another scalp.

Sadly, Balbirnie, who had cleared the ropes three times, fell for 30 to the first ball of the next over, Stirling quickly followed for a top score of 37 and, as the spin twins cleverly took pace off the ball, the Boys in Green were unable to sustain a challenge.

“We lost our way a bit against their spinners and it was slightly disappointing,” Balbirnie said.

“We’ve come a long way in the past year, but the last two games against Australia and New Zealand have shown we still need to improve to get closer to the big teams.

“Josh has been really impressive, not just all tournament but for the past 18 months. He sets the tone from the off, bowls really well in the powerplay and is a key asset for us. He has a really big future.”

So a campaign that began with a round one defeat by Zimbabwe, and would have ended two days later but for Campher’s heroics with the bat against Scotland, eventually produced a fifth-place finish in Group One of the Super 12, with memorable wins over England and the West Indies along the way.

But it did more than that, it confirmed that Ireland are a force again in T20s, playing an exciting and watchable brand of cricket under new coach Heinrich Malan, and with eight players under 30 the next few years are full of promise.

Meanwhile, skipper Laura Delany top-scored with 69 as her Ireland team lost the first of three ODIs by 128 runs in Lahore at the start of their historic first tour of Pakistan.

Ireland suffered in the field with only Arlene Kelly (2-62) and Eimear Richardson (1-56) taking wickets as Sidra Ameen crashed 176 not out in a massive total of 335-3 from 50 overs.

In reply, Gaby Lewis fell early for 15 and Leah Paul quickly followed before Delany put the meat in the innings with 92-ball stay that contained six boundaries, but with no-one else reaching 30 the Girls in Green were bowled out for 207 in the final over.