IRELAND ARE BEGINNING to motor in India as Kevin O’Brien’s all-round performance helped his side level their One-Day International series with Afghanistan with a three-wicket win this morning.
After a slow start to the five-game series, Ireland have won the last two games and now hold all the momentum heading into Friday’s decider.
John Bracewell’s side are crucially finding form in Greater Noida and after losing the first five fixtures of their tour — they lost the Twenty20 series 3-0 — it’s a welcome relief to see both the batsmen and bowlers hitting their straps.
O’Brien was the star of the show this morning, taking four wickets as Ireland bowled the hosts out for 220 and then scoring an unbeaten half-century to guide Ireland home with 3.1 overs to spare.
21-year-old leg spinner Jacob Mulder returned to the side after sitting the last three games out and proved a point by taking 3/57 during an excellent spell while Andy McBrine and Tim Murtagh were also among the wickets.
In reply, Ireland got off to a solid start with openers Ed Joyce (24) and the in-form Paul Stirling (28) putting on 48 for the first wicket before O’Brien (72*) took the game away from Afghanistan with a typically aggressive innings.
The all-rounder retired hurt when he was on just 9 but returned with Ireland reeling on 130/6 to score 10 boundaries, including two sixes, as he shared a match-winning stand with Gary Wilson (41).
“It’s the same hamstring injury unfortunately, which doesn’t look too good,” O’Brien said afterwards. “We’ll reassess it in the next 12-24 hours to see where we go.”
“As a batting unit, we spoke of how we need one from the top six to be there going into the last few overs and that’s how it worked out.
“Afghanistan are a very good bowling team, and every match against them on this tour has been close and hard fought. We knew they weren’t going to lie down when they scored just 220.
“We realised we were going to have to bat well and our mentality was just the same, as we looked to score freely without taking too many risks.”
The teams meet in the fifth and final ODI at the same venue on Friday with the series still very much alive.
Afghanistan 220 (Shafiqullah 42, K O’Brien 4/26, J Mulder 3/57)
Ireland 224/7 (K O’Brien 72, Gary Wilson 41)
Ireland win by 3 wickets
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