Balbirnie guides Ireland to victory

DEHRADUN: Andy Balbirnie gave Afghanistan a taste of their own medicine Tuesday, smashing a brilliant unbeaten 145 as Ireland claimed their first win of a punishing series.The 28-year-old Dubliner anchored Ireland´s innings as they passed Afghanistan´s 256-8 with an over to spare to win by four wickets. But Balbirnie hit eight sixes and eight fours to set up the morale-boosting win that levelled the five match 50 over series 1-1, with two matches to play. Ireland were whitewashed in the earlier T20 games in which a series of world records fell.Earlier Najibullah Zadran hit an unbeaten 104 as Afghanistan recovered from losing five cheap wickets to make 256-8. Nijibullah came in with Ireland taking the upper hand on 69-4 and patiently took his side to safety while building his maiden international century with five sixes and five fours. Captain Asghar Afghan´s 75 also played a major role as his side went from 74-5 to easily see out the 50 overs in a commanding position. Afghan won the toss and opted to bat.Afghanistan lead the five game series 1-0 with one game washed out. Afghanistan also won the T20 series without losing a game.AfghanistanM Shahzad lbw b Murtagh 5Hazratullah Zazai run out (Murtagh) 34Rahmat Shah lbw b McBrine 1Asghar Afghan c O´Brien b Rankin 75Hashmatullah Shahidi b Cameron-Dow 11S Shinwari c Balbirnie b Dockrell 4Najibullah Zadran not out 104Mohammad Nabi c Poynter b Rankin 2Rashid Khan c Singh b Murtagh 8Dawlat Zadran not out 2Extras (lb 3, w7) 10Total: (for 8 wickets, 50 overs) 256Bowling: Murtagh 10-2-60-2, McBrine 10-2-37-1, Singh 8-0-46-0, Cameron-Dow 7-0-37-1, Dockrell 5-0-17-1, Rankin 10-0-56-2IrelandW. Porterfield (c) lbw b Mujeeb 3P. Stirling c Asghar b Dawlat 20A. Balbirnie not out 145S. Singh lbw b Dawlat 1K. O´Brien c Asghar b Samiullah 21G. Dockrell st Shahzad b Nabi 54S. Poynter c Zazai b Rashid 0A. McBrine not out 9Extras: (lb 4, w 3) 7Total: (for 6 wickets, 49 overs) 260Bowling:Mujeeb Ur Rahman 10-0-55-1, Dawlat Zadran 10-1-52-2, Samiullah Shinwari 10-0-60-1, Mohammad Nabi 10-0-45-1, Rashid Khan 9-0-44-1Result: Ireland win by four wicketsSeries: Five match series level 1-1Toss: AfghanistanUmpires : Izatullah Safi (AFG), Sundaram Ravi (IND)TV Umpire: Ahmed Shah Pakteen (AFG)Match Referee: Javagal Srinath (IND).

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