Ireland claim three wicket win

Ireland secured a fine three-wicket victory over Afghanistan in their World Cup warm-up match at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

Sat, 10 Jan, 2015 - 17:04

Ireland secured a fine three-wicket victory over Afghanistan in their World Cup warm-up match at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium.

Well done @gwilson14 @KevinOBrien113 and @Irelandcricket ..cracking win #IREvAFG ..great start to 2015
— Surrey Cricket (@surreycricket) January 10, 2015

After winning the toss and electing to field, Ireland had Afghanistan at 81 for five at one stage before opener Javed Ahmadi (81) and Najbullah Zadran (45) put on 49 for the sixth wicket.

Afghanistan, who beat Scotland by eight wickets on Thursday in the opening match of the tri-nation series, were eventually bowled out for 180 after losing their last three wickets without scoring.

Spinner George Dockrell was the pick of the Ireland bowlers with four wickets for 35 runs from his 8.2 overs.

In response, Ireland suffered their own poor start as they were 29 for three before 51 from Ed Joyce partly steadied the ship.

After starring with the bat, Ahmadi then threatened to win the game with the ball as he took four wickets, only for Andrew Balbirnie (31) and Alex Cusack (26) to steer Ireland home with 6.4 of the 50 overs to spare.