Ireland Beat Afghanistan To take The Title

Ireland beat Afghanistan by five wickets to win ICC World T20 Qualifier final. Both teams having already qualified for the World T20 to be held in Sri Lanka, the match had nothing but pride and honour at stake.

Set a target of 153, Ireland lost William Porterfield of the first ball of the innings. Ed Joyce too fell without adding much to the total. It was the partnership between Paul Stirling and Gary Wilson that took Ireland close to the total. Stirling was the dominant partner in the partnership of 80 runs which came off only 55 balls. Stirling scored 79 off 39 balls and thrice he hit the Afghanistan bowlers over the ropes. When he fell, Ireland was on 113. Kevin O’Brien’s dismissal at the same score created a bit of a flutter in the Ireland dressing room. But Poynter and Wilson took Ireland to safety before Wilson fell with the team needing only nine more runs. Dawlat Zadran took three wickets for only 21 runs in his spell of four overs.

Afghanistan who had won the toss earlier in the day batted first. While wickets fell at regular intervals, Mohammad Shahzad held the innings together, before launching a late innings assault on the tidy Irish bowlers. Shahzad scored 77 off 57 balls. His effort of 65 two years back and got Afghanistan in place in the 2010 World T20, today though his effort for a much lesser cause proved to be futile.