| Afghan life breath Mangalam

Belfast: Afghanistan win the crucial match of the Twenty20 series against Ireland. Afghanistan reached the target by 22 runs in the third T20I. After defeating Afghanistan in the first two matches, Ireland were on the verge of winning the series. However, the Afghans fought back and kept their lives alive.

Ireland won the toss and put their opponents into bat. Afghanistan scored 189 runs for five wickets in 20 overs with all the leading batsmen putting up a brilliant performance. The top scorer was opener Rahmatullah Gurbaz who scored 53 runs off 35 balls with one six and eight fours.

Hazratullah Sasai, the fellow opener, got off to a great start with 39 off 40 balls. Afghanistan’s first wicket fell after 90 runs in the 12th over. Ibrahim Zadran (36 off 22 balls) and Najeemulla Zadran (42 off 18 balls) who were one down also shone. Captain Muhammad Nabi, who was run out in the last ball, scored six runs in five balls. Josh Little took two wickets for Ireland. Mark Adair and Fionn Hand each found their victims.

Ireland’s journey to the 190-run target was rocky from the start. The first wicket fell when three runs were scored on the scoreboard.

They could not recover from this shock. Captain Andy Balbirnie (one), Harry Tector (three), Curtis Campher (eight), Gareth Delaney (16), Mark Adair (six) and Graham Hume (one) put the bat down without contributing much.

George Dockrell’s fire in the seventh brought the hosts close to their opponents’ score. A firework with the ninth Fionn Hand also gave Ireland hope of victory. The alliance that shook Afghanistan from 85 for seven broke up when they reached 159. With this, the hope of success was extinguished.

Dockrell remained unbeaten on 58 with Josh Little not out on the last ball. Dockrell’s innings consisted of six fours and two sixes in 37 balls. Star spinner Rashid Khan did not take any wickets but Naveen-ul-Haq took three wickets, Mujibur Rahman and Fazalullah Farooqui took two wickets each to ensure Afghanistan’s win. Muhammad Nabi took a wicket.