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Ireland scripted history on Friday, defeating Afghanistan by six wickets to get their first-ever Test win on Day 3 of their one-off match, in Abu Dhabi on Saturday. Ireland are now the fourth-fastest team in 147 years of Test history to register their first win in the format.
It took Australia only one match to win their first Test. Meanwhile, England, Pakistan and Afghanistan took two matches to achieve the feat. On the other hand, West Indies took six matches, Ireland took eight and India did it after 25 games.
Ireland played their first Test match in 2018, where they were defeated by Pakistan. Afghanistan resumed batting in their second innings on Day 3, and began from 134/3, eventually getting dismissed for 218. Afghan captain Hasmatullah Shahidi (55) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (46) played key knocks for Afghanistan. Meanwhile, Mark Adair took three wickets to finish with eight in the match.
Chasing 111, Ireland reached 111/4, courtesy of an unbeaten half-century from Andrew Balbirnie (58*). Ireland were in trouble early, and were reeling at 13/3 due to Naveen Zadran removing Peter Moor and Curtis Campher for ducks.
Speaking after the match, Ireland captain Balbirnie said, “Deserved it. To win our 1st Test we are absolutely excited. There’s a lot of cricket going on around the world, we know we are not going to get 10-15 Tests a year, but when we do, we will look to do well, very special to be a part of the group to have done that.”
Speaking on his knock, he said, “Nerves but I knew if I could settle in there, we could win. It is right up there, currently there is a lot of talk about the relevance of Test cricket, played a lot of cricket for Ireland, a lot of players did not get the chance before, hopefully we will inspire a few back home to be Test cricketers.”
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