Ireland captain Paul Stirling won the toss and elected to bowl first against Afghanistan in the third and final ODI of the white-ball tourney being played in Sharjah. (More Cricket News)
Afghanistan are leading the series 1-0. They won the first game by 35 runs after putting 310 runs on the board and restricting Ireland to a total of 275. Rahmanullah Gurbaz did the star turn for the Afghans with the bat, scoring a brilliant century.
The second match was abandoned without a ball being bowled. This means that the Irish must win the third game if they are to draw level 1-1.
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With resourceful batters like Azmatullah Omarzai, Rahmat Shah and Mohammad Nabi in their line-up, Afghanistan have a solid middle order at their disposal, while their captain Hashmatullah Shahidi's good recent form adds to the firepower.
The fiery Fazalhaq Farooqi adds to their bowling firepower, and Noor Ahmad and Nabi add their experience to support the spin arsenal. Meanwhile, Ireland must up their game in all three departments if they are to challenge the Afghans.
Their top-order did not deliver in the chase during the first match, putting pressure on Stirling and Andy Balbirnie to fire. Harry Tector's fabulous century kept their hopes alive, but they'll be looking for more contributions from Curtis Campher and George Dockrell in the lower order.
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Playing XIs
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (captain), Ikram Alikhil (wk), Azmatullah Omarzai, Mohammad Nabi, Nangeyalia Kharote, Naveed Zadran, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Allah Mohammad Ghazanfar
Ireland: Andrew Balbirnie, Paul Stirling (captain), Curtis Campher, Harry Tector, Lorcan Tucker (wk), George Dockrell, Mark Adair, Andy McBrine, Barry McCarthy, Theo van Woerkom, Graham Hume.
The ODI series is being live-streamed on the Fancode app and website in India. Unfortunately, there will be no live telecast of the Afghanistan vs Ireland 3rd ODI in India.
