Afghanistan vs Ireland
The third match of the Afghanistan vs Sri Lanka ODI series has started. Ireland won the toss and elected to bowl. Afghanistan got the opportunity to bat first, so far Afghanistan have collected 104 runs for the loss of 4 wickets in 24 overs. Afghanistan's top order batsmen could not perform very well today. The two opening batsmen did well at the start, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran put on a 62-run partnership. Rahmanullah Gurbaz was dismissed for 51 runs while Ibrahim Zadran was dismissed for 22 runs and Rahmat Shah was dismissed for 4 runs.
Ireland's bowlers improved a bit today. So far McBrine, Barry McCarthy and Mark Adair have taken 1 wicket each. Ireland need to stop Afghanistan before 250 runs to win today. Let's see how many runs target Afghanistan can give in the end.
Afghanistan team failed to collect big today. Due to slow batting from the beginning of the innings, at the end of 50 overs, Afghanistan lost 9 wickets and collected 236 runs. But considering the condition of the pitch, it cannot be called a bad collection. If the bowlers bowl well, Afghanistan has a chance to win.
The first innings average of this pitch is 223 runs and the second innings average is only 191 runs. So even with Afghanistan providing a small target, it cannot be said that Ireland will win.
If Ireland wants to win today's match, the top order batsmen will definitely need to bat responsibly. Ireland cannot win if the top order collapses quickly. Afghanistan's bowling attack is quite strong. So Ireland's batsmen have to play very carefully from the beginning of the innings.