Ireland beat Afghanistan, post their first Test victory

Ireland claimed their first Test victory when they beat fellow minnows Afghanistan by six wickets on Friday in a one-off match in Abu Dhabi after skipper Andy Balbirnie took charge in the run chase with an unbeaten half-century.
Ireland, who acquired Test status along with Afghanistan in 2017, had lost seven straight matches before they eventually beat the Asian side in a low-scoring affair that finished inside three days.
“A lot of our guys didn’t get to play Test cricket. Hopefully people back home want to be Test cricketers. We knew it would be attritional stuff,” Balbirnie said.
“There’s a lot of cricket in the world... We’ve created results, and created history. The monkey is off our back, very special to do that.”
After dismissing Afghanistan for 155 in the first innings where seamer Mark Adair picked up five wickets (5-39), Paul Stirling (52) helped guide Ireland to a total of 263 to give them a 108-run lead. Adair picked up three more wickets to clean up the top order in the second innings but Afghan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi (55) helped them post 218 to give Ireland a modest target of 111 runs to win.
Ireland found themselves in deep trouble at 13-3 when Naveed Zadran dismissed Peter Moor and Curtis Campher for ducks in the second over, but Balbirnie led from the front with an unbeaten knock of 58.
Lorcan Tucker also came in and steadied the ship (27 not out) as they patiently stitched together a 72-run partnership before Tucker hit the winning runs for a famous victory.
“I’m buzzing. Obviously very nice to get a win. Absolutely chuffed,” said Adair, who was named player of the match.
“Test cricket is pretty difficult. I think we’ve got a really good bowling group. In the last year, we’ve played a lot of cricket.”
“I think the first day, when we were batting, we let ourselves down,” said Shahidi.
“The Irish seamers were bowling very well but we threw our wickets away.”
He added: “We have some positives. Gurbaz was very positive on debut. Naveed had had a good Test against Sri Lanka, and in this match also he did very well.” The two teams will now play three one-day internationals and three T20 games as part of their multi-format series.

SCOREBOARD
Afghanistan 1st innings 155 all out
Ireland 1st innings 263 all out

Afghanistan 2nd innings (overnight 134-3)
Ibrahim Zadran c Moor b Adair 12
Noor Ali Zadran c Adair b McCarthy 32
Rahmat Shah c Tucker b Adair 9
Hashmatullah Shahidi lbw b Adair 55
Rahmanullah Gurbaz b Young 46
Nasir Jamal b McCarthy 2
Karim Janat c Balbirnie b Young 13
Zia-ur-Rehman c Balbirnie b van Woerkom 13
Naveed Zadran b Young 25
Nijat Masood b McCarthy 0
Zahir Khan not out 4
Extras (b7) 7
Total (all out; 75.4 overs) 218
Fall of wickets: 1-24 (Ibrahim Zadran), 2-38 (Rahmat Shah), 3-93 (Noor Ali Zadran), 4-140 (Hashmatullah Shahidi), 5-143 (Nasir Jamal), 6-173 (Karim Janat), 7-174 (Rahmanullah Gurbaz), 8-206 (Zia-ur-Rehman), 9-207 (Nijat Masood, 10-218 (Naveed Zadran)
Bowling: Mark Adair 16-3-56-3, Barry McCarthy 18-5-48-3, Theo van Woerkom 13-3-43-1, Andy McBrine 17-3-38-0, Craig Young 10.4-2-24-3, Harry Tector 1-0-2-0

Ireland 2nd innings (target 111)
P. Moor b Naveed Zadran 0
A. Balbirnie not out 58
C. Campher b Naveed Zadran 0
H. Tector c Gurbaz b Masood 2
P. Stirling c Shah b Zia 14
L. Tucker not out 27
Extras (lb7, nb3) 10
Total (four wickets; 31.3 overs) 111
Fall of wickets: 1-8 (Moor), 2-8 (Campher), 3-13 (Tector), 4-39 (Stirling)
Bowling: Nijat Masood 8-1-27-1 (1nb), Naveed Zadran 9.3-0-31-2, Zia-ur-Rehman 11-0-33-1, Zahir Khan 3-0-13-0 (2nb)