Email This Article To Someone!The holders surrendered a first innings lead of 69 to the new kids on the block but, importantly, William Porterfield and Gary Wilson reduced the deficit to 30 and returned this morning with the sole intention of batting out the day.
On a Dambulla pitch which is offering chronically slow turn and nothing for the pace bowlers, it should not be a difficult task - for the team that is, if not the openers - but a losing draw is the best they can hope for from a match to forget.
It was always going to be more difficult without the injured Boyd Rankin and Regan West, in the first Ireland match after the retirement of Kyle McCallan, and the less experienced bowlers have been exposed on such a batting friendly pitch.
Still, to their credit, they stuck to their task yesterday - a much improved bowling performance than on day two - making the Afghan batsmen play many more deliveries and sending down far fewer ‘four balls’. In 74 overs on Friday, Ireland conceded a ridiculous 44 boundaries - yesterday in nine overs more only 21 were scored.
It helped that Andre Botha bowled 15 overs, nine more than on day two, and as well as having the best economy rate, he also finished with three wickets, classically two caught behind and one leg before, even if the latter looked more than a little fortuitous.
Trent Johnston, Ireland’s leading wicket-taker in the competition, was the only other successful pace bowler yesterday as Andrew White claimed the other four in his longest ever stint for his country.
The Instonians all rounder is playing his 150th match - he led the team onto the field at the start of the Afghanistan innings - and with spin partner Gary Kidd not threatening, he celebrated by taking four wickets for the first time in a first-class match. It turned into a battle of patience between White and the batsmen - who would take a risk first - and it was the Ireland bowler who was rewarded.
White was fortunate that his last ball before lunch was a long hop. It was to Shabir Noori who for 331 minutes and 234 balls had defied everything the Irish had thrown at him in compiling 85 painstaking runs, but even he couldn’t resist this one. However, it went straight into the midriff of Kevin O’Brien and Ireland were suddenly five wickets away from a first innings lead with 63 runs in hand.
It was not to be, however, as the sixth wicket pair put on 72 before Johnston ended that stand, via the inside edge of Asghar Stanikzai’s bat. His compatriot, Mohammad Nabi, was White’s next victim, skying a pull to cover and the last two, more orthodox dismissals, ended Ireland’s longest ever stay in the field.
The Ireland openers were untroubled in the 14 overs remaining and after their tame surrender in the first innings, along with a few other batsmen, they will be anxious not to make the same mistake on the final day.
Scorecard
Afghanistan Vs Ireland 2-Innings Match Played At Dambulla, 21-Jan-2010, FC Intercontinental Cup Round 718 Toss won by Ireland Umpires R Martinesz & TH Wijewardene (both Sri Lanka) Comment 718/3
Referee: Ishtiaq Ahmed (Pakistan)
4 day match 21, 22, 23, 24 January 2010
Close
Day 1: Ireland 324-7(98 overs, J Mooney 5* DT Johnston 0*)
Day 2: Ireland 405 , Afghanistan 263-3 (74 overs, Shabir Noori 44*, Mohammad Shahzad 60*)
Day 3: Afghanistan 474, Ireland 2nd Inns 39-0 (14 overs, W Porterfield 14*, G Wilson 21*) Ireland 1st Innings 405/10 All Out (Overs 118) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Min Bls 4s 6s WTS Porterfield* c Samiullah Shenwar b Hamid Hassan 78 175 134 7 2 GC Wilson c Hamid Hassan b Mohammad Nabi 53 114 89 9 0 AR Cusack c Mohammad Shahzad b Samiullah Shenwari 39 96 92 9 0 NJ O'Brien+ c Mohammad Shahzad b Karim Sadiq Khan 66 157 119 9 0 AC Botha st Mohammad Shahzad b Samiullah Shenwari 0 7 7 0 0 KJ O'Brien lbw b Samiullah Shenwari 16 53 35 2 0 AR White c Karim Sadiq Khan b Hamid Hassan 43 90 89 6 0 JF Mooney not out 58 105 90 9 0 DT Johnston lbw b Samiullah Shenwari 2 23 20 0 0 GE Kidd c Mohammad Shahzad b Hamid Hassan 4 17 18 0 0 P Connell b Shapoor Zadran 18 51 29 4 0 extras (b0 lb13 w2 nb13) 28 TOTAL 10 wickets for 405 FOW 1-120(GC Wilson) 2-170(WTS Porterfield) 3-203(AR Cusack) 4-203(AC Botha) 5-231(KJ O'Brien) 6-316(NJ O'Brien) 7-323(AR White) 8-328(DT Johnston) 9-339(GE Kidd) 10-405(P Connell) Bowler O M R W wd nb Dawlat Ahmadzai 11 2 32 0 - - Shapoor Zadran 10 1 33 1 - - Hamid Hassan 24 4 91 3 - 13 Noor Ali 2 0 21 0 1 - Mohammad Nabi 27 3 102 1 - - Samiullah Shenwari 27 5 75 4 - - Karim Sadiq Khan 15 5 31 1 1 - Nowroz Mangal 2 0 7 0 - - Afghanistan 1st Innings 474/10 All Out (Overs 153.2) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Min Bls 4s 6s Karim Sadiq Khan b GE Kidd 19 75 46 4 0 Noor Ali c NJ O'Brien b P Connell 53 89 71 9 0 Shabir Noori c KJ O'Brien b AR White 85 331 234 10 0 Nowroz Mangal* c NJ O'Brien b AC Botha 84 118 113 16 0 Mohammad Shahzad+ c NJ O'Brien b AC Botha 88 167 121 15 0 Asghar Stanikzai b DT Johnston 39 122 96 5 0 Mohammad Nabi c JF Mooney b AR White 64 68 127 4 2 Samiullah Shenwari lbw b AC Botha 19 46 35 2 0 Dawlat Ahmadzai not out 7 61 48 0 0 Hamid Hassan c NJ O'Brien b AR White 7 17 16 0 1 Shapoor Zadran lbw b AR White 2 21 15 0 0 extras (b1 lb3 w0 nb3) 7 TOTAL 10 wickets for 474 FOW 1-72(Karim Sadiq Khan) 2-74(Noor Ali) 3-178(Nowroz Mangal) 4-325(Mohammad Shahzad) 5-342(Shabir Noori) 6-414(Asghar Stanikzai) 7-453(Samiullah Shenwari) 8-461(Mohammad Nabi) 9-468(Hamid Hassan) 10-474(Shapoor Zadran) Bowler O M R W wd nb P Connell 21 9 52 1 - - DT Johnston 26 5 88 1 - 1 AR Cusack 11 1 56 0 - - GE Kidd 24 8 68 1 - - JF Mooney 4 0 22 0 - 1 AR White 31.2 8 99 4 - - AC Botha 21 6 44 3 - - KJ O'Brien 15 4 41 0 - - Ireland 2nd Innings 39/0 (Overs 14) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Min Bls 4s 6s WTS Porterfield* not out 14 0 38 1 0 GC Wilson not out 21 0 48 3 0 AR Cusack dnb - NJ O'Brien+ dnb - AC Botha dnb - KJ O'Brien dnb - AR White dnb - JF Mooney dnb - DT Johnston dnb - GE Kidd dnb - P Connell dnb - extras (b1 lb0 w1 nb2) 4 TOTAL 0 wickets for 39 FOW Bowler O M R W wd nb Shapoor Zadran 4 0 22 0 1 - Dawlat Ahmadzai 2 1 1 0 - - Hamid Hassan 2 0 7 0 - - Mohammad Nabi 3 2 2 0 - - Samiullah Shenwari 3 0 6 0 - -
