Ireland 183 for 5 (Balbirnie 77, Tector 36, Abbas 2-36) beat Pakistan 182 for 6 (Babar 57, Ayub 45, Young 2-27) by five wickets
Ireland and Pakistan were playing each other in a T20I for the first time in 15 years, and Andy Balbirnie’s 77 helped the hosts beat the visitors. It was Ireland’s first win over Pakistan in the format, with the only time the teams having met earlier coming at the World T20 in 2009.
Harry Tector, who added 77 with Balbirnie for the third wicket, set the platform in the 183-run chase, before cameos from George Dockrell and Curtis Campher took Ireland over the line.
The chase came down to a tense finish, with Ireland needing 40 in the last four overs even as Pakistan had an over each from Naseem Shah and Shaheen Afridi, along with two from Abbas Afridi, in the bank.
Abbas started with the wicket of Dockrell and conceded just three off the first four balls. But then began the recurring theme of a bowler starting the over well before conceding a late boundary and bringing down the asking rate.
Full report to follow…