Ireland beat Afghanistan to notch their first victory in Test history

Ireland medium-pacer Mark Adair, who took five wickets (5/39) in the first innings and three (3/56) in the second innings, got his name on the honours board, albeit a temporary one, after helping his team script history as they defeated Afghanistan in the one-off Test at the Tolerance Oval in Abu Dhabi.

Soon after the win, which comes nearly seven years after Ireland got Test status and in their eighth Test, Cricket Ireland tweeted “No honours board? No problem, we brought our own.”

The board made of what appeared to be a plastic-paper sheet included five-wicket-in-an-innings performances and centuries scored by the Irish players in seven of the eight Test matches including this one.

A statement from the International Cricket Council said, “Interestingly, the two teams had last met in a Test in 2019, and it was Afghanistan, who secured their first win in the format, against Ireland.”

The Irish team lost the toss and asked to bowl. The bowlers, however, rolled over the Afghan batters.

Mark Adair, in particular, took full advantage of the swinging conditions and registered his first five-wicket haul in Tests. He was ably supported by the pace of Barry McCarthy, Craig Young and Curtis Campher.

If not for the patient opening knock of 53 by Ibrahim Zadran and the resistance shown by Karim Janat (41*) towards the end, Afghanistan would have ended up with a much lower first-innings score than the 155 they got.

In reply, Ireland stuttered at the beginning before Curtis Campher (49) and Harry Tector (32) stabilised the innings. Despite a brief comeback by Afghanistan, Ireland's lower middle-order put up a solid performance, led by mature knocks from Paul Stirling (52), Lorcan Tucker (46) and Andy McBrine (38), who helped them post a respectable total, securing a big 108-run lead with 218.

Adair picked up from where he had left off and removed Zadran early before he could inflict any damage. He followed that up with the wicket of Rahmat Shah. Afghanistan's top and middle order offered a fightback with crucial knocks from captain Hashmatullah Shahidi (55) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (46) but Adair removed Shahidi and along with McCarthy and Young strangled the scoring rate.

Naveed Zadran (25) managed to delay the inevitable for a while but Afghanistan were eventually bowled out for 218, setting Ireland a target of 111 to win.

Despite a modest target, Afghanistan did not make things easier for Ireland, reducing them to 8/2 and eventually 13/3, thanks to an inspiring opening spell from Naveed Zadran and Nijat Masood.

Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie, who scored 58, then combined first with Paul Stirling and then with Tucker, sharing a half-century stand for the fifth wicket to take Ireland home to a six-wicket win on Day 3.

Cricket, Ireland, Test cricket, Afghanistan, ICC, Mark Adair, Andrew Balbirnie