Rashid Khan starred in a tense run chase for Afghanistan to give them a 2-0 lead against Ireland in the five-match ODI series.
More importantly, the win secured Afghanistan a place in next year's World Cup.
Losing half their side in just 21.3 overs, Ireland were in deep trouble and faced a tough task to bat out the remaining overs.
While they had enough overs left, Afghanistan were in a spot of bother with just three wickets remaining.
Desperately searching for the eighth wicket, Ireland couldn't make a breakthrough as Rashid's heroics got them over the line in the 45th over of the chase.
Rashid Khan starred in a tense run chase for Afghanistan to give them a 2-0 lead against Ireland in the five-match ODI series. More importantly, the win secured Afghanistan a place in next year's World Cup. It will be their fourth successive appearance in the pinnacle event.
Opting to bowl first, Afghanistan made a good start when Fazalhaq Farooqi sent Andrew Balbirnie packing early. However, Paul Stirling and Cade Carmichael steadied the ship and fetched timely boundaries to hand the momentum to the home side. Yamin Ahmadzai, who came into the XI for this fixture, broke the partnership and from then on, things went south for the hosts. Carmichael was trapped LBW by Rashid and AM Ghazanfar struck twice in two overs - dismissing Lorcan Tucker and Curtis Campher.
Losing half their side in just 21.3 overs, Ireland were in deep trouble and faced a tough task to bat out the remaining overs. And that task became tougher when Rashid knocked over Harry Tector with a googly. While Benjamin Calitz managed to hang in for a while, it was the lower order resistance of Gavin Hoey and Jai Moondra that gave Ireland something respectable to fight with. The two players joined forces when Ireland were languishing at 128/8 and managed to add 76 valuable runs for the ninth wicket to drag Ireland past 200. Once that partnership was broken, Azmatullah Omarzai put an end to the Irish resistance in the 47th over.
Chasing just 207, Afghanistan got off to a flying start with Rahmanullah Gurbaz striking two sixes off Jai Moondra. Gurbaz continued to make an impact up top as Afghanistan made merry.After Ibrahim Zadran's scratchy innings, Sediqullah Atal made a valuable contribution considering the context of the game. Even though Gurbaz smashed another six to get to his fifty, Rahmat Shah getting castled caused a little flutter.
Just when it appeared Afghanistan recovered from that blip and put the chase back on track, Hoey struck again. First, Hashmatullah Shahidi miscued one and then Gurbaz's whirlwind innings came to an end as well. Another unnecessary risk saw Afghanistan lose their sixth wicket and Ireland were firmly back in the game. When Mark Adair dismissed Omarzai, Afghanistan still needed 30 runs. While they had enough overs left, Afghanistan were in a spot of bother with just three wickets remaining. Rashid then played a crucial knock and dragged the chase until the end. At one end, Ahmadzai was content on playing the holding role and at the other, Rashid was handling the run-scoring duties. Desperately searching for the eighth wicket, Ireland couldn't make a breakthrough as Rashid's heroics got them over the line in the 45th over of the chase.
