Afghanistan have beaten Ireland by 35 runs on Friday (8th March) at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah. Rahmanullah Gurbaz's cracking century made the difference between the two teams and aided Afghanistan to go 1-0 up in the series.

Earlier, Ireland won the toss and opted to field first. Coming out to bat, Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran played solidly as both of them stitched 150 runs together to set the tone for Afghanistan. Gurbaz was dropped very early of his innings and he made Ireland pay by scoring a blitzkrieg hundred. He made 121 off only 117 runs to put Afghanistan to a peak Breezy knocks from Mohammad Nabi (40 off just 27 balls) and Hashmatullah Shahidi (50 from only 33 balls) took the hosts over 300 mark barrier which was an above par score on a slow and low surface.

In reply, Ireland stuttered in the beginning and they were reduced to 34-3 on the back of incisive bowling from Fazalhaq Farooqi and Azmatullah. But, Tector and Tucker joined hands and batted brilliantly. Both of them went past their fifties through the passage and stitched a 173 run stand to infuse life back into the contest.

Farooqi then removed Tucker and brought Afghanistan back into the game again. The death bowling from Afghanistan was spot on and though Tector scored a century, wickets kept tumbling on the other end which entirely didn’t help Ireland to chase down the total. Ireland managed to score just 275 and were short of 35 runs. And Harry Tector's fantastic 138 off only 147 went in vein as Ireland lost the match by 35 runs.