Shaheen Afridi made the task a little easier by taking 1 wicket with 8 runs in the 19th over. Wickets were also valuable. This pacer returned Andrew Balbirnie who scored 77 runs. Next up was Abbas Afridi. But 11 runs in front of Curtis Kampfer was no big deal. Ireland won a historic victory against Pakistan with 1 ball to spare.
Pakistan had to digest a big shock at the beginning of World Cup preparations. Babar Azam's team lost in the first match of the series against Ireland. Skipper Babar's ODI temperament batting has come under question once again. Despite scoring 182 runs against Ireland, the T20 champions of 2009 had to lose at the end of the day.
Andrew Balbirnie's 77 along with Harry Tector's efficient 36 kept Ireland in the orbit of victory. A good finish was needed. Kampfer's cameo of 15 runs from 7 balls eventually made that task easy too. Ireland win against Pakistan by 5 wickets.
Irish captain Paul Stirling won the toss and sent Pakistan to bat first at the Castle Arena in Dublin. Pakistan's opening pair has been in question for quite some time now. But even today, the pair of Saim Ayyub and Mohammad Rizwan started Pakistan's innings. However, it did not get many runs. Rizwan departed with 1 run off 4 balls.
Then the pair of Babar Azam and Saim Ayyub at the crease. The pair of the two did not have a bad run. Runs came at 9 per over. But in this, Sime's achievement is more. Scored 45 runs off 29 balls in over 155 strikes before getting out. It was that innings that gave Pakistan the foundation for a big score. After his dismissal for 92 runs, Babar picked up the 34th T20 fifty of his career. However, criticism could not be avoided even in such an innings. The innings of 57 runs from 43 balls slowed down Pakistan's runs rather a bit.
However, no one could score runs for Pakistan. Fakhar Zaman played another slow innings of 20 runs off 18 balls. And both Azam Khan and Shadab Khan are back calling. In the end, Iftikhan scored 37 runs off 15 balls with 3 fours and 3 sixes to spin the team's runs. And he was accompanied by Shaheen Afrini. 20 runs came in his 8-ball innings. By that, Pakistan got a big capital of 182 runs.
The Irish didn't get off to a good start with the bat either. Paul Sterling was dismissed by Naseem Shah for 14 runs and Lorcan Tucker was dismissed for 27 runs by Abbas Afridi. Both are caught out. After that, Man of the Match Andrew Balbirnie formed a great partnership with Tector. Party centenary passed. Harry Tector returned in the 13th over. 104 runs on the scoreboard.
Victory is still a distant beacon for Ireland. Meanwhile, George Dockrell gave a quick innings of 24 runs from 12 balls. This short cameo brings the match to hand. Dockrell returned to the team for 143 runs, but there was no danger. Andrew Balbirnie kept up the run-scoring pace even after the fifty.
His innings of 77 runs off 55 balls stopped in the 19th over. But by that time, Ireland came close to victory. And Curtis kampfer hit two fours in the last over to give the team victory.
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