Categories: Sports

Recent Match Report – Afghanistan vs Ireland Only Test 2023/24

Stumps Ireland 100 for 4 (Campher 49, Tector 32*, Zia-ur-Rehman 2-13, Naveed 2-32) trail Afghanistan 155 (Ibrahim 53, Janat 41*, Adair 5-39, Campher 2-13, Young 2-31) by 55 runs

A Test match had never been played at Tolerance Oval in Abu Dhabi before, so the conditions were a bit of an unknown for both Afghanistan and Ireland. Even then, neither side could have expected so much sharp conventional swing, until a stage when reverse swing actually became a bigger factor. There was movement on offer off the pitch, too. Add to that the accuracy of Ireland’s quick bowlers, led by Mark Adair, and all ten Afghanistan wickets fell inside 55 overs.

Hashmatullah Shahidi had opted to bat first under a bright and sunny sky, hoping for spin to play a part when they would bowl in the fourth innings of the Test. But, by the end of day one, Afghanistan were only 55 ahead, with only four Ireland wickets down.

Ireland’s third-wicket pair of Curtis Campher and Harry Tector added 60 after they were 32 for 2 in the tenth over, not too far off from Afghanistan, who were 11 for 2 after seven. Ibrahim Zadran and Shahidi had also repaired their innings with a 55-run stand, which was broken when Shahidi tickled one down leg off one of Ireland’s three debutants, Brian McCarthy.

Ibrahim and Afghanistan’s only debutant, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, then added 22 more.

But at 86 for 3 just after lunch, the wheels started to come off for Afghanistan. And the trigger was pressed by Adair, who had already picked up two out of the three wickets until then. The first of those had come in the third ball of the seventh over when Adair had Noor Ali Zadran nicking to second slip.

Two deliveries later, Ireland reviewed when an lbw shout by Adair against Rahmat Shah went against them, only for replays to show the ball missing leg. But next ball, Adair cleaned Rahmat up for a duck, when a length ball angled in and straightened to find the gap between bat and pad. Adair also struck in the second over after lunch, having Gurbaz bottom edge one to the wicketkeeper.

Two of Adair’s other victims were Zia-ur-Rehman, who flashed one to second slip to end a stay of more misses than hits, and Zahir Khan, for whom Adair perhaps reserved his best of the lot. Coming from around the wicket to the left-hander, Adair landed one on a length around off, and got the ball to straighten to hit the top of off.

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