Twitter Reactions: Ireland rebounds in the 2nd ODI to level series 1-1

After being completely dominated by Afghanistan in the T20I series and in the 1st ODI, Ireland finally made a comeback in the 2nd ODI. The Irish men dealt well with all the adversities in the match and maintained their calm in the high-pressure situations to square the series. This win now makes the series more interesting as it all boils down to the decider that will be played on 31 August 2018.

Tim Murtagh was yet again the star with the ball for Ireland. Moreover, he also bettered his figures from the previous match and recorded his best figures in ODI cricket. With the bat, Andy Balbarnie and Simi Singh were the stars for Ireland. Although the Afghan spinners tried hard to push the hosts on the backfoot, they didn’t really have enough score to defend.

Tim Murtagh unsettles the Afghan batting lineup

After winning the toss, Afghanistan decided to bat first in this game. However, within no time, Tim Murtagh sent all of the top three batsmen backpacking. He dismissed the in-form Hazratullah Zazai for 1 run while his partner Mohammad Shahzad got out for a duck. Gulbadin Naib, who batted brilliantly in the last game got out for just 7 runs in this encounter. Shahidi too was run out after scoring 2 runs and the side was down to 16/4.

At this stage of the game, it looked tough for Afghanistan to at least go past the total of 100 runs. But, Rahmat Shah and skipper Asghar Stanikzai combined forces and added 56 runs together. However, both of them threw their wickets away in their 30s. Najibullah scored 42 runs at the end as the visitors only managed to get 182 runs in 50 overs after losing 9 wickets.

A nervy chase for Ireland

Although the target wasn’t high, the biggest threat for Ireland was from the spin trio of Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi. Mujeeb dismissed the Irish skipper William Porterfield for a duck in the 1st over of the game. But, Paul Stirling and Andy Balbarnie played some good knocks. While Stirling scored 39 runs, Balbarnie scored 60. These two innings put Ireland right back into the game and they were in quite a commanding position.

But then, Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan picked some quick wickets and put Ireland under immense pressure. At this point in time, Simi Singh played a gritty knock. He sustained himself out there in the middle, saw through the difficult phases and helped his side bag a very memorable win. He was unbeaten on 36 off 59 balls as Ireland registered a 3-wicket win. Rashid Khan picked 3 wickets in the innings.

Twitterati was glad to see Ireland back in the winning ways and seemed to be excited about the decider.

Here is how Twitter reacted: