Pakistan vs Ireland 1st T20I Highlights: Ireland, under the captaincy of Paul Stirling scripted history as they defeated 2022 T20 World Cup runners up Pakistan by five wickets in the first match of the three match T20i series st Dublin’s Clontarf Cricket Stadium on Friday.
This was the very first instance of Ireland defeating Pakistan in T20i Cricket as both sides had locked horns against each other only once in the shortest format of the game during the 2009 T20 World Cup where the Shaheens had ended on the winning side.
The Babar Azam led team got off to a brilliant start with the ball as they picked up two early wickets in the Powerplay thanks to the amazing efforts of Shaheen Shah Afridi and Naseem Shah while defending a total of 183 runs. But, the Shaheens weren’t able to overcome the retaliation of Harry Tector and Andrew Balbirnie as the duo stood tall against the Pakistani bowling attack and got involved in a really important partnership of 77 runs which allowed the hosts to get back in the game after a horrendous start to the chase.
Harry Tector got dismissed after getting 36 runs under his belt but Andrew Balbirnie took command of one end and ensured that the hosts didn’t fall behind the required run rate. Middle order batter George Dockrell brought some much needed momentum to the Irish batting inning as he played a brilliant knock of 24 runs in 12 deliveries which consisted of four boundaries and his knock proved to be the difference maker in Ireland’s victory by five wickets.
Talking about the bowling performance of the Shaheens, Shaheen Shah Afridi took two scalps while Imad Wasim, Abbas Afridi and Naseem Shah bagged one wicket each.
The Babar Azam led team got a huge breakthrough when Shaheen Shah After sent the dangerous Andrew Balbirnie back to the dugout but the duo of Curtis Campher (15* runs in 7 balls) and Gareth Delany (10* runs in 6 balls) guided the hosts over the victory line.
Batting first, the visitors posted a total of 182 runs at the loss of six wickets on the board as captain Babar played a crucial knock of 57 runs in 43 balls while opener Saim Ayub played a quick fire inning of 45 runs in 29 balls Iftikhar Ahmed also starred with a cameo of 37* runs in 15 deliveries.
READ: The WTC 2027 final won’t be held in England
