Pakistan beat Ireland by three wickets in a Group A match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup in Lauderhill on Sunday.
Chasing a 107-run target for victory, Green Shirts crossed the finishing line with three wickets and seven balls to spare. Skipper Babar Azam was the top scorer with 32 runs followed by Mohammad Rizwan, Saim Ayub, and Abbas Afridi who made 17 runs each. Shaheen Shah Afridi made 13 runs. Barry McCarthy bagged three wickets and Curtis Campher had two while Ben White and Mark Adair got one wicket each. Shaheen Shah Afridi was named player of the match.
After being asked to bat first by skipper Babar Azam, Ireland lost half of the side inside the powerplay with just 28 runs on the board. Gareth Delany (31), Mark Adair (15), and George Dockrell (11) provided some resistance in the middle overs. Josh Little (22) and Ben White (5) added 26 runs for the last wicket to take the team score to 106/9 in the allotted 20 overs. Imad Wasim and Shaheen Shah Afridi bagged three wickets each and Mohammad Amir had two while Haris Rauf got one wicket.
Ireland Playing XI:1 Andy Balbirnie 2 Paul Stirling (capt) 3 Lorcan Tucker (wk) 4 Harry Tector 5 Curtis Campher 6 George Dockrell 7 Gareth Delany 8 Mark Adair 9 Barry McCarthy 10 Josh Little 11 Ben White
Pakistan Playing XI: 1 Mohammad Rizwan (wk) 2 Saim Ayub 3 Babar Azam (capt) 4 Fakhar Zaman 5 Usman Khan 6 Shadab Khan 7 Imad Wasim 8 Shaheen Afridi 9 Abbas Afridi 10 Haris Rauf 11 Mohammad Amir
