263/10 (83.4)
CR : 3.14
155/10 (54.5)
CR : 2.83
Ireland won by 6 wickets 🏆
Player of the Match
Mark Adair
5/39 & 3/5615(20)
6:04 PM IST, 4:34 PM Local Time: That's it. A historic day for Irish Cricket as they notch up their first ever Test win. They win inside 3 days and gets there in their 8th Test match. This was a hard fought Test match lasting for 3 days and it is the Irish who come out on top as the skipper Andrew Balbirnie has led from the front in this tense chase.
Let's quickly recap you the Test match that we witnessed in the last 3 days. It was Afghanistan who won the toss and decided to bat first. But they faltered to be bowled out for 155 in the first innings. Only Ibrahim Zadran played well for his 53. Karim Janat scored an unbeaten 41* as well. Mark Adair was the star for Ireland with a five wicket haul. A couple of wickets apiece for Curtis Campher and Craig Young as well.
In reply, Ireland managed to take a lead of 108 runs as they posted 263 runs. Plenty of starts for the Irish batters. Curtis Campher scored 49, Harry Tector scored 32, Paul Stirling top scored with 52. Lorcan Tucker scored 46 while Andy McBrine scored 38. Zia-ur-Rehman was the pick of the bowlers with a five wicket haul while Naveed Zadran picked up 3 wickets as well.
Faced with a deficit of 108 in the first innings, Noor Ali Zadran scored 32 while skipper Shahidi led from the front and scored 55 runs. Gurbaz on debut scored 46 runs. Naveed Zadran scored a useful 25 runs. Afghanistan were eventually bowled out for 218 in their second innings. Mark Adair added three more to his tally to finish with 8 in the match. Barry McCarthy and Craig Young picked up 3 wickets apiece as well. 19 out of 20 wickets of Ireland were picked by the pacers.
Chasing 111 for the win, Ireland suffered a few early jitters as they were reduced to 13/3 and then 39/4 but recovered from that position thanks to their skipper Andrew Balbirnie who remained unbeaten on 58* off 96 balls. Lorcan Tucker gave him good company with 27* while Paul Stirling got into double figures. The target was achieved in 31.3 overs.
Naveed Zadran was the pick of the bowlers with a couple of wickets while Zia-ur-Rehman picked up a wicket as well and so did Nijat Masood as well. Afghanistan tried their hearts out with the ball in this innings, but it was not to be as Ireland finish as victors in the end.
So, Ireland wins by 6 wickets in this only Test match and make it a historic moment for them. Stay tuned for the presentations.
Let's quickly recap you the Test match that we witnessed in the last 3 days. It was Afghanistan who won the toss and decided to bat first. But they faltered to be bowled out for 155 in the first innings. Only Ibrahim Zadran played well for his 53. Karim Janat scored an unbeaten 41* as well. Mark Adair was the star for Ireland with a five wicket haul. A couple of wickets apiece for Curtis Campher and Craig Young as well.
In reply, Ireland managed to take a lead of 108 runs as they posted 263 runs. Plenty of starts for the Irish batters. Curtis Campher scored 49, Harry Tector scored 32, Paul Stirling top scored with 52. Lorcan Tucker scored 46 while Andy McBrine scored 38. Zia-ur-Rehman was the pick of the bowlers with a five wicket haul while Naveed Zadran picked up 3 wickets as well.
Faced with a deficit of 108 in the first innings, Noor Ali Zadran scored 32 while skipper Shahidi led from the front and scored 55 runs. Gurbaz on debut scored 46 runs. Naveed Zadran scored a useful 25 runs. Afghanistan were eventually bowled out for 218 in their second innings. Mark Adair added three more to his tally to finish with 8 in the match. Barry McCarthy and Craig Young picked up 3 wickets apiece as well. 19 out of 20 wickets of Ireland were picked by the pacers.
Chasing 111 for the win, Ireland suffered a few early jitters as they were reduced to 13/3 and then 39/4 but recovered from that position thanks to their skipper Andrew Balbirnie who remained unbeaten on 58* off 96 balls. Lorcan Tucker gave him good company with 27* while Paul Stirling got into double figures. The target was achieved in 31.3 overs.
Naveed Zadran was the pick of the bowlers with a couple of wickets while Zia-ur-Rehman picked up a wicket as well and so did Nijat Masood as well. Afghanistan tried their hearts out with the ball in this innings, but it was not to be as Ireland finish as victors in the end.
So, Ireland wins by 6 wickets in this only Test match and make it a historic moment for them. Stay tuned for the presentations.
Time for the presentations.
Mark Adair is the player of the match.
Mark Adair (Player of the Match): "The way the lads put some fire at the end and got us home. It was a nice win. All of the boys were absolutely brilliant.
Last year in Test cricket was pretty difficult. We used to find ourselves at the losing side on every moment and just tough. It is a stepping stone for us. Hopefully we can step in the whites soon and chase number 2.
The way we showed the depth in our batting was excellent. The way the lads finished was top notch. We've got a really good bowling group and that's what really matters. Lads play a lot of cricket and we have the most experienced group in a long time. There are some guys coming in but we still have that core."
Last year in Test cricket was pretty difficult. We used to find ourselves at the losing side on every moment and just tough. It is a stepping stone for us. Hopefully we can step in the whites soon and chase number 2.
The way we showed the depth in our batting was excellent. The way the lads finished was top notch. We've got a really good bowling group and that's what really matters. Lads play a lot of cricket and we have the most experienced group in a long time. There are some guys coming in but we still have that core."
Hashmatullah Shahidi (Afghanistan Captain): "Thanks to Allah. I think in the first day when we were batting we let ourselves down. Ireland bowled well, but we batted badly. The condition was not good for batting. It was seaming and swinging and they bowled at the right areas. Yes, we had some positives. Gurbaz was good on debut and Naveed Zadran had a good Test match against Lanka and here. Zia did well for them. Yes, always special to win the first game and I congratulate them on their win and may they go and achieve great success."
Andy Balbirnie (Ireland Captain): "We started the match really well having lost the toss. The bowling effort was outstanding, really disciplined. We showed it again in the 2nd innings. To take 20 wickets in Test match is a big achievement and it is only the 2nd time we've done it so pretty special.
With a score like this you are just 1 partnership away. The more we spent time out there, the easier it got. Obviously bit of nerves when you are chasing a first win but I knew if I stood their for long I could see us home.
There's a lot of talk around the world about the relevance of Test cricket. But you ask this whole group how special this is and that's right up there for me. I have played a lot of cricket for Ireland but certainly that's as big a moment for me and a lot of players before us didn't get the chance to play Test cricket. Fortunately we are part of the history now. We got to play and got to win. Hopefully we will inspire some people back home to wanna be Test players.
It swung a bit more than we thought on the 1st day. You still got to bowl well and create chances. We did that. The spinners created chances as well. Tied down ends when they needed to and so just an allround performance. We won a lot of sessions out there and we are absolutely ecstatic.
You have to look at how busy the schedule is, there's a lot of cricket in the world going on. We know we are not gonna get 10-15 Tests a year, that's fine but when we get our opportunity we are going to do our best and create a result and create a history. We have done that now, nice to get the monkey off the back."
With a score like this you are just 1 partnership away. The more we spent time out there, the easier it got. Obviously bit of nerves when you are chasing a first win but I knew if I stood their for long I could see us home.
There's a lot of talk around the world about the relevance of Test cricket. But you ask this whole group how special this is and that's right up there for me. I have played a lot of cricket for Ireland but certainly that's as big a moment for me and a lot of players before us didn't get the chance to play Test cricket. Fortunately we are part of the history now. We got to play and got to win. Hopefully we will inspire some people back home to wanna be Test players.
It swung a bit more than we thought on the 1st day. You still got to bowl well and create chances. We did that. The spinners created chances as well. Tied down ends when they needed to and so just an allround performance. We won a lot of sessions out there and we are absolutely ecstatic.
You have to look at how busy the schedule is, there's a lot of cricket in the world going on. We know we are not gonna get 10-15 Tests a year, that's fine but when we get our opportunity we are going to do our best and create a result and create a history. We have done that now, nice to get the monkey off the back."
Andrew Balbirnie now goes and collects the trophy and will now take it to his team mates. The celebrations shall begin in the Irish camp now and they deserve this.
That's it from the coverage of this only Test match. Hope you enjoyed it. Stick around to our network for more cricketing actions from around the globe and across formats. For now, this is Ayan Chatterjee signing off on behalf of my co-commentator Ninaad Dixit alongside scorer/analyst Zeeshan Naiyer. Stay safe, happy, and cool. Goodnight and CHEERS!