Ireland got Test status in 2018. They played red ball cricket for the first time against Pakistan in May that year. After debuting until June last year, the Irish played just seven Tests in five years. But he didn’t know what it was like to win in white clothes. Ireland finally got the victory in the eighth innings. Andy Balbirnie’s team made history by defeating Afghanistan by 6 wickets.
Afghanistan started the second innings on 134 for 3 on the third day. Hasmatullah Shahidi stopped by adding two more runs to the previous day. The Afghan captain could not score more than 55 runs off Mark Adair.
Unbeaten on 23 runs, Rahmanullah Gurbaz fought alone for the rest. He scored 46 runs off 85 balls. In the end, Naveed Zadran crossed the 25-run mark.
Afghanistan were all out for 218 runs. Adair, Barry McCarthy and Craig Young took maximum three wickets each.
Afghans got a lead of only 110 runs. They started well with a target of 111 runs. In his first over, Naveed dismissed Peter Moore and Curtis Kampfer for two balls in a row. Ireland was under pressure when Harry Tector returned for 13 runs by Nijat Masood.
Balbirni took the lead in this danger. He scored an unbeaten half-century to take the team to victory. Ziaur Rahman returned Paul Sterling in between. Balbirnie made an unbroken partnership of 72 runs with Lorcan Tucker to take the team to victory. The Irish captain scored 58 runs off 96 balls. Tucker was unbeaten on 27 runs. Ireland scored 111 runs for the loss of 4 wickets.
