IRE vs AFG, 5th T20 | Ireland won by 7 wickets (DLS Method)

BELFAST: Ireland won the thrilling final T20 to clinch the series 3-2. Ireland won the toss and elected to bowl in a  decider as their bowlers made justice to the decision.

Afghan openers began explosively as Zazai smashing consecutive boundaries and the bowler made his revenge by dismissing the batter at 3rd ball at the end of the over Adair provided another breakthrough knocking opener Gurbaz at other end. Adair's dream spell continued as he claimed his 3rd wicket in second over dismissing Zadran and the visitors were in deep trouble reducing them to 26-3 at the end of 4 overs. The tourists' boundary pressure was reduced by an overthrow after 5 overs. Usman Ghani found it difficult to score against fast bowlers as the spinner was introduced in 10 th over he straight away attacked the bowler as 20 runs coming from six deliveries. The partnership was eventually broke by Little climbing 2 wickets of Nabi and N Zadran in the space of two balls. Afg was in process of building a partnership for end overs but there was a twist as rain began and lasted for several hours and first innings was called off for 15 overs with score 95-5 giving Ireland a target of 56 from 7 overs.

 Afghanistan bowlers began strongly even though they conceded 4,6 in the first 12 balls but no other runs were scored keeping the chase tight. Andrew Balbirnie fell LBW to Mujeeb. Though the dismissal did not affect the host as boundaries were scored at regular intervals by Stirling and Tucker. Mujeeb added another wicket in his column sending back sterling as the Irish batter becoming 4th player in history to achieve 3000 runs in T20. Rashid managed to get Tucker once the target came to run a ball. At the end Irish managed to chase the target with two balls to spare as Dockrell hit the winning runs to fence by pull shot.

Dockrell was awarded player of the series for his 141 in 5 innings without losing a wicket.

MATCH SUMMARY:

Ireland v Afghanistan, 5th T20I, Stormont, Belfast, 17 August 2022

Afghanistan 95-5 (15 overs; U Ghani 44*, A Omarzai 15*; M Adair 3-16)

Ireland 56-3 (6.4 overs; P Stirling 16, L Tucker 14; M Rahman 2-17)

Ireland won by seven wickets with two balls remaining (DLS Method)