Dehradun (Uttarakhand): Ireland’s top-order batsman Andrew Balbirnie played an unbeaten knock of 145 runs, enabling his team to register a win over Afghanistan by four wickets in the third-ODI of the five-match series.
The batsman was pleased by his knock and said that one dreams of playing that type of knock.
“When you go out and bat, you dream of having that kind of knock, so to do it is just great, we are a very close team at the moment, we are in the hotel, spending a lot of time with each other, so just to be able to get that win, we will enjoy that tonight, and we will go again tomorrow preparing for the next game in two days,” International Cricket Council (ICC) quoted Balbirnie as saying.
Ireland as a result of their win, have levelled the five-match series at 1-1. The batsman came out to bat in the third over and he remained unbeaten at the end.
The batsman has said that this knock will give him tremendous confidence going ahead in the series.
“I think I just stuck to my strengths. I got out sweeping the other day, but I did not want to put that in the locker because it is a strong shot of mine,” Balbirnie said.
Ireland had a decent day with the ball in hand as their bowlers restricted to Afghanistan to 256/8.
“Hopefully we have got confidence now, I thought the bowlers did extremely well. The Afghans batted well in the middle, but we managed to drag it back a bit. The guys up top, Tim Murtagh and Andy McBrine, did really well. It was not a perfect performance, there are still things to work on, but we are one-all with two games to go and that is great,” Balbirnie added.
Ireland would look to win the fourth match of the series to ensure that they do not lose the series.
Ireland takes on Afghanistan in the fourth ODI of the five-match series on Friday, 8th March at Dehradun.
[source_without_link]ANI[/source_without_link]