Afghanistan vs Ireland, One-off Test: Ireland witnessed an incredible day in their cricketing history as they registered their first-ever Test win by defeating Afghanistan on Friday, March 1.
Ireland got the better of Afghanistan by six wickets in a one-off Test at the Tolerance Oval in Abu Dhabi as they took their eighth attempt to clinch their maiden Test victory.
They got the Test status first in June 2017, when the ICC confirmed them as Full Members, along with Afghanistan.
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Ireland and Afghanistan last met in a Test in 2019 with the latter securing the win, their first in the longest format of the game.
It is to be noted that Ireland are not a part of the World Test Championship, leading them to not play more than one Test on the majority of occasions.
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However, they have played only one two-match series which was against Sri Lanka.
Talking about the match, Ireland were put into bowl first but they came with a brilliant performance, bowling Afghanistan out for just 155 runs with Mark Adair taking a five-wicket haul.
He got a promising support with Craig Young and Curtis Campher picking up two wickets whereas Barry McCarthy took a wicket as well.
For Afghanistan, Ibrahim Zadran was the top run-getter in the first innings with 53 runs while Karim Janat remained unbeaten on 41.
Ireland managed to reach 263 before getting bowled out in their first innings on the back of fifty from Paul Stirling (52) and Lorcan Tucker's 46.
Zia-ur-Rehman picked up a fifer whereas Naveed Zadran took three wickets for Afghanistan.
Afghanistan were bowled out for 218 in 75.4 overs despite skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi's 55 and Rahmanullah Gurbaz's 46 runs
They set Ireland a target of 111 runs despite three wickets each for Adair, McCarthy, and Craig Young whereas Theo van Woerkom took a wicket as well.
Ireland chased down the total in 31.3 overs with six wickets in hand as skipper Andrew Balbirnie scored his half-century and remained unbeaten for 58.
With this win, Ireland also surpassed teams like India, New Zealand, South Africa, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Zimbabwe in terms of the number of matches taken to register their first Test win.
All these teams played more matches than Ireland to register their first-ever victory in the longest format of the game.