Twitter Reactions: Afghanistan ride on rain-luck to go 1-0 up

The opening T20I between Afghanistan and Ireland turned out to be an exciting one. Both teams fought tooth and nail, and threw punches at each other in Greater Noida, but eventually, the hosts won by 11 runs (DLS Method) to take a 1-0 lead in the series. The pitch was an excellent for batting, but it was Rashid Khan’s spell of 4-0-22-0 that played a big part in deciding the result of the game.

Stirling top scores for Ireland

Ireland got off to a thunderous start after electing to bat first. Their openers , Paul Stirling (60) and Kevin O’Brien stitched together a 63-run stand in the powerplay. In the last ball of the field restrictions, Mujeeb Ur Rahman castled O’Brien to break the stand. Andrew Balbirnie didn’t throw the kitchen sink at everything, but got a 28-ball 29 in a crucial 48-run partnership with Stirling.

Rashid Khan removed Stirling to take the sting out of the Irish innings and in his very next over, accounted for Balbirnie’s wicket. In the last 46 balls, the visitors could only manage 61 runs. In the end, it was Harry Tector’s 17-ball 29 that got Ireland to a competitive 172 for the loss of six wickets in 20 overs. Rashid also nipped out Lorcan Tucker. The pacers couldn’t make much of an impact.

Ireland stumbles

In their run-chase, the Afghans got off to a blistering start. Hazratullah Zazai (23) and the young Rahmanullah Gurbaz (28) put on 54 for the opening wicket in 27 balls. Simi Singh got rid of Gurbaz to give Ireland some breather. In the same over, Singh pinned Zazai as well. Singh didn’t stop there and ran Asghar Afghan out. From 54/0, the home team was reduced to 55/3 in a space of six balls.

Karim Janat had a painful stint in the middle as he could only manage six runs from 12 balls before being run out. However, Samiullah Shinwari (28) and Najibullah Zadran (42) got the innings going. Najibullah was the more attacking of the two, playing at a strike-rate of 200. But then, rain arrived leaving the Afghans above the par score. In the end, the game didn’t start and Ireland missed out.

Here’s how Twitterati reacted on Afghanistan’s victory: –