Twitter Reactions: Ireland clinch T20I series 3-2 with win in rain-curtailed final affair

Mark Adair and Josh Little impressed the most with their bowling skills to restrict Afghanistan from scoring big.

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IRE vs AFG
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Andrew Balbirnie (Photo Source: Cricket Ireland)

Ireland and Afghanistan squared off in the series finale – the fifth T20I game as both teams had aimed for one final win in order to lift the silverware. After the hosts won the first two games to take a lead, the visitors denied them an early series win and bounced back to win the next two games, levelling the series at 2-2. With the title at stake, they clashed for the decider game and it was Ireland that emerged victorious and clinched the series by 3-2.

The host won the toss and elected to bowl first. Their plans fell in place immediately as the first innings began. After a decent first over by Josh Little, Mark Adair struck twice in the second over and dismissed the opening pair of Hazratullah Zazai and Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Adair was unstoppable, and he kept his good form going by picking up the wicket of Ibrahim Zadran in his next over.

Within 3.5 overs, Afghanistan’s top order had collapsed, courtesy of Mark Adair. The visitors were already in a jeopardy, and the situation kept getting difficult as the middle-order batters struggled to score runs. After playing a lot of defensive shots, Usman Ghani turned on his attacking mode and smashed Simi Singh for 20 runs in the 10th over.

But to add to Afghanistan’s misery, Josh Little scalped two consecutive wickets in the 11th over. As the game neared its end, the rain played a spoilsport and ended Afghanistan’s innings abruptly after the 15th over. The rain persisted for a long time, and as a result of the DLS method, Ireland’s chase was cut short to 56 runs from seven overs.

Ireland batters hold their composure to chase the total

The hosts lost three wickets during their innings but managed to chase down the score with ease. Openers Andy Balbirnie and Paul Stirling started off well and looked for the fences from the very first over. But the former was scalped by Mujeeb Ur Rahman in the third over as the hosts received the first blow. But the game went on smoothly as alongside wickets, the batters also aimed to hit the ball for boundaries, and succeeded in the same.

Rahman dismissed Stirling, and Rashid Khan dismissed Lorcan Tucker, but that did not concern the hosts as they kept piling up runs and a four in the last over by George Dockrell put curtains on Afghanistan’s hopes of winning the series. Eventually, Ireland chased down the score with two balls to spare and won by seven wickets with the DLS method in place.

Here’s how Twitter reacted to Ireland’s triumph: 

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