‘Disbelief’ over Campher’s five from five haul

Ireland international Curtis Campher said his Munster Reds team-mates were “in shock” as he became the first male cricketer to take five wickets from five balls in a professional game.

The 26-year-old all-rounder, who finished with figures of 5-16, produced the spectacular spell in his side’s 100-run Inter-Provincial T20 Trophy win over the North West Warriors in Dublin on Thursday.

“I think a bit of disbelief, to be honest,” he said of the reaction.

“It’s one of those things that you don’t really think is going to happen – or can happen – and it just did.

Campher previously took four wickets from four balls for Ireland against the Netherlands in the 2021 T20 World Cup.

He was captaining the Reds on Thursday and produced the first two wickets of his haul in the 12th over before resuming bowling duties in the 14th to finish off his piece of cricketing history.

He believes both the break and his duties as skipper distracted from the feat.

“I was worried about the next over and who was bowling and the rate and managing the game for a bit, so then I didn’t really realise that I was on a hat-trick,” he said.

“When I got the hat-trick, I was like, ‘Listen, there’s a new batter in here, I’ve got to try and hit four from four again’.

“I managed to nick it off and then when I knew it was a left-hander on strike, so I thought round the wicket and just try and hit the stumps. It got a little bit of nip and down the hill she went.”

The performance made plenty of headlines throughout the game with Campher pleased to raise the profile of domestic cricket in Ireland.

“I think any time you can grow the game in Ireland, it’s really, really cool,” he added.

“I think the guys in the national team have really pushed that too. You have the front-runners like Kevin [O’Brien] and Stirlo [Paul Stirling], guys that have really pushed the game forward and then hopefully we can try to grow the game more on the Irish soil.”

Personally, however, Campher feels his place in the history books will take some time to sink in.

“I think maybe when I retire, I think that might be a moment where I look back and, if I have a few kids, I might say, ‘Look, this is what I used to do and this is what I did’.

“That’s quite a cool moment. I think maybe when I’m finished playing in a couple of years’ time, I might look back and be like, that’s really cool to have under the belt, for sure.