Friday March 1st was a very special day for Irish cricket. Ireland recorded their first win in Test cricket history. Ireland defeated Afghanistan by 6 wickets in the only Test match at the Abu Dhabi ground. This is Ireland’s first victory in Test cricket. The Irish team had previously played seven games in which they suffered defeat in all encounters.
The only friendly match between Afghanistan and Ireland was played at the Tolerance Oval in Abu Dhabi. The Afghan team was restricted to just 155 runs in their first innings. Mark Adair took five wickets for Ireland. In response, the Irish team scored 263 runs in their first innings and gained a commanding lead of 108 runs.
Then the Afghan batsmen couldn’t stay at the crease for long in the second innings either and the entire team collapsed for 218 runs. In this way, Ireland had a target of 111 runs in the second innings, which the Irish team achieved by losing just four wickets.
Chasing the target, Ireland lost three wickets for just 13 runs and four wickets for 39 runs, but captain Andrew Balbirnie stood like a rock and played an unbeaten innings of 58 runs to give his team a historic victory. Along with him, wicketkeeper-batsman Lorcan Tucker returned unbeaten after scoring 27 runs.
Mark Adair, who took five wickets in the first innings, sent three Afghan batsmen to the pavilion in the second innings. Adair received the Player of the Match award for taking eight wickets in the match. Apart from him, Craig Young took five wickets in the match. After the first victory in Test cricket, the entire Irish team seemed happy and celebrated extensively.