An outstanding opening spell from Dawlat Zadran and Mujeeb-ur Rahman guided Afghanistan to an easy win over Ireland in the first ODI at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Dehradun on February 28 (Thursday).
Mujeeb Ur Rahman struck in his very first over to dismiss Irish captain William Porterfield for one, when he inside-edged an attempted cut. Andy Balbirnie departed while playing an attempted sweep shot off the same bowler to fall for a 20-ball two. Meanwhile, James McCollum’s debut innings ended the first ball as he missed a googly. Mujeeb’s excellence saw him finish the day with figures of 3 for 14 from ten overs as he proved a tricky customer with the ball.
However, it was not only the spinners – Dawlat Zadran and Gulbadin Naib also posed serious threats to the Afghanistan batters. Naib’s first victim was Kevin O’Brien, having him miscue a leg-cutter straight to mid-on to depart for 10. Simi Singh stuck around for 32 deliveries before off-spinner Mohammad Nabi trapped him right in front of the stump. Zadran then had Stuart Poynter trapped in front for seven.
Struggling at 69 for six, Paul Stirling paired with George Dockrell to add 76 runs for the seventh wicket. The veteran opener played some good looking shots and on the way brought his half-century. But once Rashid Khan cleaned Dockrell, the wickets tumbled once again with Zadran cleaning the lower-order. Sterling’s 150-ball knock came to an end when Naib rattled his timber as Ireland managed to post only 161 runs on the board.
Here is the scorecard of Ireland innings against Afghanistan:
Meanwhile chasing 162, Afghanistan got off to a steady start before playing the waiting game in middle overs. Mohammad Shahzad and Hazratullah Zazai scored 43 runs in 12 overs and seemed to have things under control until a Kevin O’Brien special sent the latter packing back to the dressing room. Following Zazai’s dismissal, Shahzad struggled for timing and as did his partner Rahmat Shah who both got out, trying to find some momentum, in quick succession.
Since then, the scoring rate went severly down as Afghanistan could manage to score just 12 runs off 42 balls. The pressure kept mounting on Hashmatullah Shahidi nicked one to the keeper off Simi Singh for a 29-ball nine. Singh was spectacular in the middle-overs keeping things tight conceding only 19 runs from his full quota. But some good hitting from Gulbadin Naib took Afghanistan over the ropes quite convincingly.
Here is the scorecard of Afghanistan innings against Ireland:
