Ireland beats Afghanistan in one-off test match

KABUL (Pajhwok): Ireland on Friday beat Afghanistan by six wickets in a one-off test match played in Abu Dhabi.

Ireland earned their first victory in cricket’s longest format on the 3rd day of the match; it was Ireland’s first victory after six years and seven defeats.

Set a small target of 111 for victory, Ireland found themselves in a slippery position at 13 for 3 in their fourth innings, but their captain Andy Balbirnie staved off the Afghan challenge with Lorcan Tucker for company to seal the historic win in front of a spattering of travelling Ireland fans.

Balbirnie’s unbeaten 58 on a turning surface got Ireland back on track for the win, it was their pace bowlers who set the game up. The trio of Barry McCarthy, Mark Adair and Craig Young shared three Afghanistan wickets apiece in the third innings to make Afghanistan fold for only 218, having started the day at a comfortable 134 for 3.

In all, Ireland’s pace bowlers shared 19 of the 20 wickets in the match, only the second time in eight Tests that the team took all 20.

The summary of scorecard was as following:

Ireland 263 (Stirling 52, Ur-Rahman 5-64) and 111 for 4 (Balbirnie 58*, Tucker 27*, Naveed 2-31) beat Afghanistan 155 (Ibrahim 53, Adair 5-39) and 218 (Shahidi 55, Young 3-24, McCarthy 3-48, Adair 3-56) by six wickets.

Mark Adair of Ireland was declared player of the match for his 5/39 & 3/56.

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