Ireland suffer T20 series defeat against Afghanistan as Ibrahim Zadran’s unbeaten 72 pays dividends for the hosts

Zadran scored 72 from 51 balls as Afghanistan finished 155 for seven, but Ireland quickly collapsed during the chase where Azmatullah Omarzai starred with the ball, taking four wickets for nine runs.

Although Rahmanullah Gurbaz fell early, Afghanistan rebuilt with Zadran and Sediqullah Atal’s 31-run partnership before the latter was dismissed by Gareth Delany.

Ireland then struggled to break the expensive partnership of Zadran and Mohammad Ishaq, who scored 54 runs between them before Ishaq was caught by captain Paul Stirling off Ben White for 27.

Mohammad Nabi and captain Rashid Khan were the next to fall for single figures, but Zadran led the charge for Afghanistan.

Ireland’s chase got off to a shaky start when Naveen-ul-Haq struck twice in two balls in the second over to bowl both Andy Balbirnie and Lorcan Tucker.

They then plunged into further trouble when Stirling was bowled for four in the following over by Fazalhaq Farooqi and Omarzai then struck twice to take the wickets of Harry Tector and George Dockrell.

Ireland needed 110 runs in the final 10 overs and Curtis Campher and Delany briefly fought back before Campher fell for 28.

Omarzai then saw off Mark Adair and Barry McCarthy before Khan picked up his first wicket of the evening when Delany was caught by Zadran and Naveen-ul-Haq wrapped the game up with 16 balls remaining by bowling White.