AFG vs IRE 3rd Match Prediction

AFG vs IRE Team Previews

Afghanistan

In the first game of the ongoing series, Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored 121 runs from 117 balls. This innings superseded the big effort from Harry Tector during the Ireland innings. The victory also means that Afghanistan has won their 5th consecutive contest against Ireland. It was a 6th century by Gurbaz in the ODIs for Afghanistan. This means he is now jointly on top of the centuries chart for Afghanistan. This century ensured that Afghanistan reached a big total. His opening wicket stand with Ibrahim Zadran took the team total to 150 runs.

Before losing his wicket in the 31st over, Zadran scored 60 runs. Hashmatullah Shahidi's half-century followed after the solid foundation set by these two openers. He hit a not-out fifty that provided the necessary impetus in the latter half of the innings. The left-arm fast bowler Fazalhaq Farooqi initially provided a double strike in the Ireland innings to remove Curtis Campher and Andy Balbirnie. Although the Ireland team recovered from a precarious position in the early stages of their innings, Afghanistan was able to hand them a 35-run defeat.

Ireland

The Ireland team again made a valiant effort to chase this big target. Harry Tector played a magnificent innings to take the team within striking distance. But he received support only from Lorcan Tucker. Surprisingly, no other batters apart from Tector and Tucker could reach double figures. This lack of collective effort from Irish batters allowed the significant effort from Tector to go in vain. Tector scored 138 runs from 147 balls with nine fours and three sixes. Tucker scored even faster and hit 85 runs from 76 balls with two sixes and eight fours.

During the Afghanistan innings, Ireland's bowlers' biggest problem was that their spearhead, Mark Adair, went for many runs and could not pick up wickets either. Surprisingly, the top bowler was Theo van Woerkom. He picked up three wickets for 55 runs from his ten overs. Some other bowlers among the wickets include Graham Hume and Craig Young. Both these bowlers picked up a wicket apiece and bowled reasonably economically. Andy McBrine also bowled well, although he could not pick up a wicket.