Led by captain Rashid Khan, Afghanistan proved their mastery with the ball as they won the second T20 international of the three-match series by 10 runs in Sharjah on Friday. Too strong for Ireland. Afghanistan’s victory levels the series at 1-1 and brings Ireland’s multi-format tour against Afghanistan to a close. Gareth Delany’s heroic knock of 39 off 18 balls was in vain as Ireland failed to score the 18 runs they needed to win in the final over. Six sixes were not enough as the penultimate ball was stopped for no runs and the last ball saw Delani take a boundary off Fazal Haq Farooqi.

The visiting team started a strong pursuit of 153 runs, with the opening partnership of Andy Balboni and Paul Sterling scoring 49 runs, but Sterling was sent off in the sixth round.

The Ireland captain was followed by Lorcan Tucker who scored 10 and Harry Tector who scored one, both goals coming from the star spinner Khan delivers and the Irish run chase comes to a halt.

Only 5.1 overs remained when Balbirnie was bowled out by Nangeyalia Kharote for 45, leaving the Ireland tail with too much to do, despite Delany’s late heroics.

Khan took 4 wickets for just 14 runs and his double-wicket haul of 16 overs, bowling out George Dockrell and Mark Adair, effectively provided the The hosts won the match.

Afghanistan won the toss earlier and elected to bat first, posting a total of 152-9 in 20 overs.

Mohammad Nabi top-scored the hosts with 59 off 38 balls, including 6 fours and 3 sixes, before he was bowled by Sterling off the bowling of Ben White (Stirling) Catch.

Adair was the pick of the Irish bowlers, finishing with figures of 3-27, while Afghanistan’s top order struggled with Mohammad Ishaq and Azmatul at number four and five Azmatullah Omarzai both won the Golden Duck.

Opener Sedikullah Attal was the only batsman to put up any outright resistance, but after 35 runs out, Afghanistan led 93-5 with 6.5 overs remaining.

However, Khan steadied the ship at ninth with a knock of 25 off 12 balls to take Afghanistan past 150 runs.

Josh Little also performed well again after taking three wickets in the first T20I on Friday and bowled Rahmanullah Guba in the second over Rahmanullah Gubaz’s kick-off.

The final match of the tour will be played in Sharjah on Monday, with Ireland hoping to add a T20I series victory to their Test match victory after clinching the ODI series in Afghanistan in early March.

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