Live Cricket Score | Ireland vs Afghanistan Live Score & Commentary | IRE vs AFG Scorecard, Afghanistan tour of Ireland

3rd T20I • Civil Service Cricket Club • Belfast

Afghanistan

189/5 (20)

Ireland

167/9 (20)

AFG won by 22 runs

Info

Fantasy

Live

Scorecard

Playing XI

Player of the Match Rahmanullah Gurbaz

53(35)

AFG s

IRE s

Info

Afghanistan s

189/5 (20)

Batters

Hazratullah Zazai

97.50

c P Stirling b F Hand

Rahmanullah Gurbaz

151.43

c MR Adair b JB Little

Ibrahim Zadran

163.64

c LJ Tucker b JB Little

Najibullah Zadran

233.33

c F Hand b MR Adair

Mohammad Nabi

120.00

runout (MR Adair / HT Tector)

Rashid Khan

0.00

Not out

Extras

(B: 0, LB: 1, NB: 0, W: 12)

TOTAL

(20 Ov, RR: 9.45)

189/5

Did not Bat

Usman Ghani, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen ul Haq

Bowlers

EXT

Mark Adair

10.50

Josh Little

7.25

Graham Hume

10.25

Gareth Delany

8.25

Fionn Hand

9.67

Curtis Campher

14.00

Fall Of Wickets

SCORE

OVER

Rahmanullah Gurbaz

c MR Adair b JB Little

1-90

11.2

Hazratullah Zazai

c P Stirling b F Hand

2-109

13.3

Ibrahim Zadran

c LJ Tucker b JB Little

3-157

17.5

Mohammad Nabi

runout (MR Adair / HT Tector)

4-175

19.1

Najibullah Zadran

c F Hand b MR Adair

5-189

19.6

Ireland s

167/9 (20)

Batters

Paul Stirling

0.00

c U Ghani b F Farooqi

Andy Balbirnie

20.00

c R Khan b F Farooqi

Lorcan Tucker

147.62

c N Haq b MU Rahman

Harry Tector

60.00

c Rahmanullah Gurbaz b N Haq

Curtis Campher

66.67

c N Zadran b N Haq

Gareth Delany

123.08

c N Zadran b M Nabi

George Dockrell *

156.76

Not out

Mark Adair

100.00

c R Khan b MU Rahman

Fionn Hand

200.00

c H Zazai b N Haq

Graham Hume

100.00

runout (Rahmanullah Gurbaz / MU Rahman)

Josh Little

0.00

Not out

Extras

(B: 0, LB: 1, NB: 0, W: 6)

TOTAL

(20 Ov, RR: 8.35)

167/9

Bowlers

EXT

5.50

6.50

9.50

9.50

9.50

7.00

Fall Of Wickets

SCORE

OVER

Paul Stirling

c U Ghani b F Farooqi

1-3

0.3

Andy Balbirnie

c R Khan b F Farooqi

2-19

2.3

Harry Tector

c Rahmanullah Gurbaz b N Haq

3-22

3.2

Curtis Campher

c N Zadran b N Haq

4-36

5.5

Lorcan Tucker

c N Haq b MU Rahman

5-58

8.4

Gareth Delany

c N Zadran b M Nabi

6-65

9.5

Mark Adair

c R Khan b MU Rahman

7-85

12.2

Fionn Hand

c H Zazai b N Haq

8-159

18.4

Graham Hume

runout (Rahmanullah Gurbaz / MU Rahman)

9-162

18.6

Match Info

Date & Time

12 Aug, 08:00 PM IST

Venue

Civil Service Cricket Club, Stormont, Belfast

Match

3rd T20I,

Afghanistan tour of Ireland

Umpires

Mark Hawthorne (Ireland) , Roly Black (Ireland)

Referee

Graham McCrea (Ireland)

Pitch Report

Batting friendly track with some help available for spinners

Toss

Ireland elected to bowl

Player of the Match Rahmanullah Gurbaz

53(35)

Commentary

That'll be all from this contest but there's plenty of cricketing action coming your way including the 2nd T20I between West Indies and New Zealand that is set to commence in just over 15 minutes from now. Hop over here to catch our coverage of the same while keeping yourselves updated with all the other cricketing news and action from around the globe right here on Sportskeeda. Thank you so much for tuning in today - this is the duo of Pradeep Somashekar and Sooryanarayanan Sesha calling it a day while wishing you a happy weekend! Good night and take care!

A much-needed win for the Afghans and that'll augur well for their confidence. Both teams have the weekend off to rejuvenate themselves and they will be itching to grab the opportunity with both hands come Monday at this very venue. One thing's for sure - things are set up fascinatingly for what ought to be an entertaining 4th T20I.

Mohammad Nabi (Captain, Afghanistan): This is exactly what we were looking for, the plan worked out, we got an excellent foundation and finished up well. The way we planned in the morning, we put one or two partnerships, big one's mostly and finish well and that's why Najib and Nabi played our suitable position and applied pressure on Ireland in the end. Early wickets is key to win the games, exactly what we did inside the powerplay. Much better performance today, hopefully we do well in the rest of the series, we will try our best.

Andy Balbirnie (Ireland Captain): I think just batting at the top, we didn't get going. I think it was pleasing from our point of view to see the fight from Fionn and George. But chasing that score, when we lost early wickets we were really up against it. (On the bowling effort) We were just a tad disappointed but with one shorter side we could have chased it. (On the two debutants). He (Hand) seems to just make things happen whether it's in the field or with the bat. Humey did well too at the back end where it's never easy to bowl in T20 cricket. Both of them had a good game. (On George Dockrell) He's become a good cricketer for us in all formats. He can hit the ball really hard with the bat. He's gone from strength to strength. We're going to probably take tomorrow off and have a training session on Sunday. Rest is very important at this stage, it's been very hard here in Belfast. The boys have put in some amazing shifts. We really want to win this series and we'll be back here on Monday to try and do that.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz has been adjudged the Player of the Match for his brilliant fifty that set the tone for the win!

Rahmanullah Gurbaz: Thanks the god, after losing the two games, we had to win and was an important encounter for us. Really happy after two games, the wicket was good and had to spend some time. Of course, from long time I opened with Zazai, he started off well and I could really play my natural game. As a cricketer have to play at every condition, not easy for us and we have adjusted to the weather conditions and hopefully do well later in the series.

Afghanistan 189/5 (20) beat Ireland 167/9 (20) by 22 runs.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz 53 (35) | Naveen-ul-Haq 3/38 (4)
George Dockrell 58* (37) | Josh Little 2/29 (4)

They were given a slight scare by George Dockrell and Fionn Hand but in the end, a win was inevitable for the Afghans after the spurt of early wickets. Four of them in the Powerplay to be more specific and there was no looking back thereon as the seamers, led by Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen-ul-Haq, broke the back of the Irish top-order.

Paul Stirling fell cheaply again and there weren't to be any heroics from Andy Balbirnie this time around. It was much similar with Harry Tector as well and it left wicket-keeper bat Lorcan Tucker waging a lone battle. He played the spinners with relative ease but his wicket was the death knell for the Irish. Or at least, that's what it seemed like.

Despite some ordinary ground fielding, Afghanistan's catching was quite spectacular as Rashid Khan and Naveen-ul-Haq both held onto stunning grabs. George Dockrell was joined by debutant Fionn Hand and the duo launched a counter-attack, sparing none in their path. The equation was comfortably out of bounds but the duo did enough to just keep the game in the balance. Only just at that!

Eventually though, Naveen returned to use his variations to good effect and the wicket of Hand - down to another excellent catch from Hazratullah Zazai this time - signaled the end for the hosts. Rashid Khan may have gone wicketless for the third game on the trot, but the result was much different for the visitors this time as they've managed to complete a fine victory to keep the series alive. Most of the damage was done on the batting front of course, with Najibullah Zadran and Rahmanullah Gurbaz leading the way. Stick around for the presentation...

It was a bridge too far to cross for the hosts and any kind of heist was a far-fetched proposition. Afghanistan pull one back with a 22-run win as Ireland lead the series 2-1.

20.0

19.6 Azmatullah Omarzai to George Dockrell, THAT'S IT! Afghanistan make it 1-2 to stay alive in the series here. Full on the wide of off-stump, Dockrell reaches for it to carve it away but misses. Afghanistan come up with a full game here to win this contest and made it count when it mattered the most.

Now then - just keep it simple, Azmat?

19.6 Azmatullah Omarzai to George Dockrell, WIDE! Bangs in the short delivery, goes way over Dockrell and it's called a wide.

19.5 Azmatullah Omarzai to George Dockrell, clever change of pace, Dockrell shimmies down the track and goes with the shot too early and misses.

Two legal deliveries will complete the formalities. Or even one, should Omarzai breach Dockrell's defence.

19.4 Azmatullah Omarzai to George Dockrell, searching for the yorker, comes out as a low full toss and Dockrell can't connect, down to long-off for another dot.

19.3 Azmatullah Omarzai to George Dockrell, OH! Would've been called a wide had he left that one alone. Dockrell reaches for the back of a length and slaps it, straight to deep extra-cover for no run.

Four sixes needed now!

19.2 Azmatullah Omarzai to George Dockrell, FOUR! Sensational shot from Dockrell, splits the two fielders at deep extra-cover. Dockrell hammers the length delivery that raced to the fence for a boundary.

19.1 Azmatullah Omarzai to George Dockrell, low full toss on the outside off, Dockrell shuffles across to whack that one away but straight to deep mid-wicket along the turf, he turns down the single.

Omarzai has been handed the ball ahead of Farooqi. Interesting move this but he has plenty of runs to play with. Two pinpoint deliveries and you'd think Afghanistan are home.

Azmatullah Omarzai [1.0-0-8-0] returns to bowl the final over of the game. He will bowl over the wicket.