Rashid Khan starred in a tense run chase for Afghanistan to give them a 2-0 lead against Ireland in the five-match ODI series.
Losing half their side in just 21.3 overs, Ireland were in deep trouble and faced a tough task to bat out the remaining overs.
The two players joined forces when Ireland were languishing at 128/8 and managed to add 76 valuable runs for the ninth wicket to drag Ireland past 200.
Yamin Ahmadzai, who came into the XI for this fixture, broke the partnership and from then on, things went south for the hosts.
Chasing just 207, Afghanistan got off to a flying start with Rahmanullah Gurbaz striking two sixes off Jai Moondra.
Gurbaz continued to make an impact up top as Afghanistan made merry.After Ibrahim Zadran’s scratchy innings, Sediqullah Atal made a valuable contribution considering the context of the game.
Even though Gurbaz smashed another six to get to his fifty, Rahmat Shah getting castled caused a little flutter.
Just when it appeared Afghanistan recovered from that blip and put the chase back on track, Hoey struck again.
First, Hashmatullah Shahidi miscued one and then Gurbaz’s whirlwind innings came to an end as well.
Another unnecessary risk saw Afghanistan lose their sixth wicket and Ireland were firmly back in the game.
While they had enough overs left, Afghanistan were in a spot of bother with just three wickets remaining.
Rashid then played a crucial knock and dragged the chase until the end.
At one end, Ahmadzai was content on playing the holding role and at the other, Rashid was handling the run-scoring duties.
Desperately searching for the eighth wicket, Ireland couldn’t make a breakthrough as Rashid’s heroics got them over the line in the 45th over of the chase.
Brief scores: Ireland 206 in 46.3 overs (Gavin Hoey 36; AM Ghazanfar 3-29, Rashid Khan 3-44) lost to Afghanistan 207/7 in 44.5 overs (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 71, Rashid Khan 37*; Gavin Hoey 4-34) by 3 wickets
