5 Years, 10 Months, and 20 Days! Ireland Cricket has finally won their first Test match, defeating Afghanistan by six wickets in Abu Dhabi’s Tolerance Oval. Lorcan Tucker’s winning run was the catalyst for the excitement in the Irish camp.

It was the first red-ball win in the history of the sport. The World Test Championship is not part of their schedule, so they have not played more than one Test in most cases. They also only played a two-match series with Sri Lanka.

Andrew Balbirnie led Ireland to their first-ever Test victory, scoring an unbeaten 50-run half-century, helping the team win by six wickets even on the third day.

Ireland’s first Test win has also seen them surpass stronger teams such as India, New Zealand, and South Africa in terms of the number of matches it took to win the longest format. These teams all played more Test matches than Ireland before they won their first match.

Ireland vs Afghanistan Test Highlight

Afghanistan was the winner of a good toss in the Test match and chose to bat. Mark Adair’s bowling was exceptional, and he reduced them to just 155.

Adair took 5 wickets at 39 runs, even though Ibrahim Zadran had scored 53 and Karim Janat was unbeaten with 41. No other batter could hold on to play a big blow.

Ireland’s response was boosted by the contributions of several batters, led by Paul Stirling. In their first innings, they scored 263 runs and took a crucial lead of 108 runs. Afghanistan‘s second essay was better, but no one batted well.

Only Hashmatullah Shahidi managed 55 runs. Two hundred eighteen runs bundled out of Afghanistan despite setting a target of just 111 runs. Ireland struggled to reach the target and lost three wickets in a row for only 13 runs.

Then, captain Balbirnie showed his strength to score an unbeaten 50 runs and ensure that Ireland crossed the finish line for the very first time.

“A lot of our guys did not get to play test cricket. We hope that people at home will want to play Test cricket. Balbirnie: “We knew it would be a battle of attrition.”

“There are a lot more crickets in the world… We have created results and made history.” “The monkey is off our rear; it’s very special that we did this.”

Paul Stirling (52) guided Ireland to 263 in their second innings after Mark Adair (5-39) had taken five wickets. This gave them a lead of 108 runs.

Adair took three more wickets in the second innings to finish off the top order. Still, Afghan skipper Hashmatullah (55), helped them to post 218 and give Ireland a modest winning target of 111.

Ireland was in trouble at 3-13 after Naveed Zaddran dismissed Peter Moor, Curtis Campher, and Peter Moor for ducks. Balbirnie took the lead with a 58-run unbeaten knock.

Lorcan Tucker, who was also in the team (27 runs not out), helped to steady the ship as they patiently stitched a 72 run partnership together before Tucker scored the winning runs.

“I’m buzzing. It’s nice to win. Adair was ecstatic to be named the player of the match.

“Test cricket can be pretty challenging. Our bowling group is really strong. We’ve played a great deal of cricket in the past year.”

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