Big upset with Pakistan before T20 World Cup 2024, Ireland registers historic win after 17 years

 

Ireland beat Pakistan: Pakistan, which went on Ireland tour for the three-match T20I series, suffered a huge setback and the team lost by 5 wickets in the first match played in Dublin. Playing first, Pakistan team scored 182/6 in 20 overs, in response to which Ireland scored 183/5 in 19.5 overs. Ireland's Andy Balbirnie (77 runs in 55 balls) was chosen as the player of the match.

After losing the toss and batting first, Pakistan got off to a poor start as experienced Mohammad Rizwan was out in the second over after scoring just 1 run. From here a tremendous partnership was seen between Sam Ayub and captain Babar Azam. Both of them added 85 runs for the second wicket and took the score beyond 90. Ayub played a tremendous innings and scored 45 runs in 29 balls, which included four fours and three sixes. At the same time, Babar scored a half-century but returned to the pavilion at the score of 116 in the 15th over after scoring 57 runs in 43 balls.

However, batsmen like Azam Khan and Shadab Khan flopped and both could not open their account. Iftikhar Ahmed along with Fakhar Zaman (20) took the score to 150 and then made an unbeaten partnership of 32 runs in 13 balls with Shaheen Afridi (14*), due to which Pakistan team was successful in scoring beyond 180. Iftikhar played a stormy inning of 37 unbeaten runs in 15 balls. For Ireland, Craig Young took the maximum of two wickets.

Defeated Pakistan again after 17 years

While chasing the target, Ireland also suffered initial setbacks and the team lost two wickets till the score of 27. From here the pair of Andy Balbirnie and Harry Tector took charge and took the score beyond 100. Tector contributed 36 runs in 27 balls. Whereas, George Dockrell scored 24 runs in 12 balls. Balbirnie scored a half-century but he also returned to the pavilion after playing an innings of 77 runs in 55 balls.

It seemed that the match would slip out of Ireland's hands but Gareth Delaney (10*) and Kurtis Campher (15*) gave their team a resounding victory with one ball to spare. Abbas Afridi took maximum two wickets for Pakistan.

Let us tell you that before this, Ireland had defeated Pakistan during the ODI World Cup played in 2007, but since then the team had to face defeat every time. However, this time it did not happen and Ireland took a 1-0 lead in the three-match series with the win. The next match of the series will be played in Dublin on 12th May.