Ireland have no answer to Afghan spin

AFGHANISTAN beat Ireland by eight wickets in the final one-day international at Stormont to win the series 2-1. Having won the toss and elected to bat first for the first time in the series, the hosts struggled to build any momentum and lost wickets at regular intervals. Ireland’s batsmen found the Afghans’ spin bowling hard to play against. Paul Stirling was first to go for two, before skipper William Porterfield and the in-form Andrew Balbirnie seemed to steady early nerves. However, with the score on 34, Porterfield fell to a juggled catch at mid-off by his opposite number, Asghar Afghan. His wicket foreshadowed a middle order collapse, as Ireland went from 34-1 to 72-6 in the space of eight overs. Chief among the destroyers for the Afghan bowling unit were spinners Rashid Khan (3-18) and Gulbadin Naib (234). Kevin O’Brien (16), Simi Singh (17) and Gary Wilson (23) battled hard to move Ireland past the 100-mark, but once they were removed the tail was wrapped up quickly and Ireland posted just 124 runs from 36.1 overs. Rashid Khan took three wickets for 18 runs while Mohammad Nabi and Gulbuddin Naib took two apiece. The vistiors managed to chase down their target inside 24 overs for the loss of two wickets. ‘We knew, looking at the first two games, that we needed to get a good total on the board,’ said Porterfield afterwards, ‘but we just didn’t get enough runs to offer a challenge.’ The two sides will face each in February/March 2019 for a series that will include five ODIs, three T20s and an inaugural Test match between the two sides.