Ireland lose series as Afghans get in groove
IRELAND lost their third and final T20I against Afghanistan last night, with the hosts claiming the series 2-1 in the process.
After the Afghans posted 155-7 — the highest score of the series so far — Ireland battled hard but were bowled out for 98, ending a memorable tour on a down note a young squad.
Fans will long remember the day Ireland claimed a first victory in Test cricket — and despite losing both white-ball series, the Irish side had some great moments with bat and ball, and had fought their way into potential match-winning positions on several occasions.
As has been his wont in the UAE over the past month, Mark Adair picked up an early scalp before Gareth Delany and Curtis Campher also chipped in with a wicket apiece, reducing Afghanistan to 63-3 after 10 overs. Ireland’s bowlers were impressive once again, with all six options used by Stirling claiming an Afghanistan wicket. But Ibrahim Zadran held his side’s batting together with a new career T20i best of 72 from 51 balls.
Upping the tempo from the previous game, Andrew Balbirnie took nine from the first over, but the prodigious swing of Naveen-ul-Haq did for him and Lorcan Tucker — first ball — in the second. Fazalhaq Farooqi then bowled Stirling to reduce Ireland to 15-3 and up against it in their pursuit.
In-form Harry Tector fell for 17 and, at 46-5 at the midway point of their run chase, the game was all but over. A 36-run partnership between Campher and Delany threatened to get Ireland back into the game, but the task proved too great.
While Afghanistan’s spinners led the way in the previous games, their seamers did the damage here. Azmatullah Omarzai played the starring role with 4-9 from his four overs and Naveen collected 3-10.
Earlier, Balbirnie was fined 25 per cent of his match fee for breaching Level 1 of the ICC Code of Conduct during the second T20I on Sunday.
After some tetchy scenes in the opening T20, it was clearly decided to clamp down on dissent and Balbirnie was found to have breached Article 2.8 of the ICC Code of Conduct, which relates to ‘showing dissent at an Umpire’s decision during an International Match.’
In the 16th over of Ireland’s innings, as Ireland chased their target in vain, Balbirnie was adjudged lbw when the ball had obviously hit his gloves. He pointed to his hands and told the umpire that the ball had touched the gloves before hitting his pads.
One demerit point has been added to Balbirnie’s disciplinary record, for whom it was the first offence in a 24-month period.