After losing the first two T20 matches, Afghanistan made a brilliant comeback in the five-match T20 series against Ireland. The Afghans won the last two consecutive games. Now, both teams have equal chances to win the series. Tomorrow, they will face each other to play the final match of the series. However, Afghanistan defeated Ireland last night by 27 runs to keep the hope alive.
Match Report
Ireland faced off Afghanistan at Stormont Cricket Ground last night to play the 4th match of the series. The umpires reduced the game to 11 overs due to bad weather. However, Irish skipper Andrew Balbirnie won the toss and opted to bowl first in this match.
So, Hazratullah Zazai and Rahmanullah Gurbaz came into the pitch to start the innings for Afghanistan. As the match was reduced to 11 overs, both batters tried to hit from the very first ball. Rahmanullah Gurbaz was more aggressive than Zazai. Together they added 37 runs on the scoreboard.
However, Zazai departed the pitch after scoring only 6 runs. But Rahmanullah kept hitting boundaries. Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored 24 off 13 balls with two sixes and three fours before losing the wicket. Furthermore, Najibullah Zadran’s half-century in the middle order gave Afghanistan a huge boost. He scored the half-century in 24 balls. Zadran hit three sixes and four boundaries before his departure. In addition, Rashid Khan added 31 runs only from 10 balls. Relying on their runs, Afghanistan scored 132 runs in 11 overs.
Ireland started their innings very aggressively to chase the target. Both batsmen tried to hit every ball they faced. Unfortunately, their partnership couldn’t go far. Skipper Andrew Balbirnie lost his wicket in the 2nd over after scoring 15 off 5 balls. After a while, Paul Stirling also followed the same way. He departed the pitch, scoring 20 off nine balls.
The following two batters couldn’t contribute much. However, George Dockrell tried hard to make a good result. He remained not out in 41 runs. But the remaining batters of Ireland couldn’t stay long with him. As a result, Ireland became all out in 105 runs, so Afghanistan won the match by 27 runs.
