Star leg-spinner Rashid Khan picked up four wickets in as many balls after Mohammad Nabi cracked a 36-ball 81 as Afghanistan swept the T20 series against Ireland 3-0 with a 32-run win in Dehradun on Sunday.
Rashid finished with superb figures of 5-27 to restrict Ireland to 178-8 after ‘hosts’ Afghanistan had made 210-7 in the northern Indian city.
Nabi smashed six fours and seven sixes during his innings as Afghanistan crossed the 200-run mark again following their world record score of 278-3 in the previous match.
In the chase, Kevin O’Brien and Andy Balbirnie put on a 96-run stand for the second wicket but Rashid proved too difficult to negotiate.
The leggie got O’Brien caught behind for 74 off the final ball of the 16th over. Then in the 18th over of the innings, he got George Dockrell, Shane Getkate and Simi Singh on successive deliveries to register a double hat-trick.
The two teams will now play five ODIs starting Thursday and then clash in a one-off Test at the same venue. Dehradun is Afghanistan’s adopted home venue in India.
