Afghanistan Have the Series. Ireland Have One Afternoon at Stormont to Stop It Becoming a Whitewash
Sediqullah Atal made 143, Ibrahim Zadran 107, and their 231-run second-wicket stand — Afghanistan's highest for that wicket in ODIs — took the tourists to 343 for 9 and an unassailable 3-0 lead. Ireland's reply of 301 was the highest losing total of the series and contained Andrew Balbirnie's 109 and Curtis Campher's 84, which is the shape of the whole tour: an Ireland side that keeps producing individual innings good enough to win ODIs and keeps losing them by forty runs. The last match of the summer at Civil Service Cricket Club is about whether that pattern breaks.
Stormont in Mid-August — A Ground That Has Stopped Behaving Like an Irish Ground
The received wisdom about Civil Service Cricket Club is that it is a bowling venue: overcast Belfast mornings, a green tinge, seamers who move the ball for the first fifteen overs and a par score somewhere around 240. That reputation has taken a beating this series. Afghanistan made 343 for 9 here two days ago and Ireland replied with 301, which is 644 runs in a single day at a ground where sides used to be bowled out for 180.
Part of that is a dry August; part of it is two batting orders in form. What it means for the final ODI is that the toss matters less than it would have a fortnight ago, and that a side batting first should be thinking about 300 rather than 260. The first fifteen overs still offer something to the new ball — Yamin Ahmadzai's 4 for 71 came largely from making the most of that phase — but a batter who survives it is playing on a surface that only gets easier.
The other Stormont variable is the outfield, which after a busy summer is quick, and the boundaries, which are not large. Both of those favour the side with the deeper hitting, and on the evidence of four matches that is Afghanistan.
The Series So Far
| Series standing | Afghanistan lead 3-0 with one to play. 1st ODI (Aug 5) abandoned without a ball bowled; 2nd ODI Afghanistan by 92 runs; 3rd ODI Afghanistan by 3 wickets; 4th ODI Afghanistan by 42 runs |
| 4th ODI, August 12 | Afghanistan 343/9 (Sediqullah Atal 143, Ibrahim Zadran 107; Yamin Ahmadzai 4-71 for Afghanistan with the ball) beat Ireland 301 (Andrew Balbirnie 109, Curtis Campher 84) by 42 runs. Atal Player of the Match |
| The record stand | Atal and Zadran added 231 for the second wicket — Afghanistan's highest partnership for that wicket in ODI cricket |
| What is still on the line | ICC Men's ODI ranking points, a consolation win for Ireland under new head coach Gary Wilson, and a 4-0 sweep for Afghanistan in Rahmat Shah's first assignment as full-time ODI captain |
One hundred and forty-three at Stormont, in partnership with a Zadran hundred, in the match that took the series beyond Ireland's reach — Sediqullah Atal has had the tour that changes how a batter is talked about. The innings was not a slog; it was an opener batting deep into the innings on a surface that rewarded exactly that, and then accelerating once the platform was somebody else's problem to defend.
Ireland's plan for the final match has to start with removing him inside the first ten overs, and the honest reading of the series is that they have not looked like doing it. Josh Little and the new-ball attack will have one more go at a batter who has now scored the runs that decided the tour.
Andrew Balbirnie's 109 in the fourth ODI was Ireland's best individual innings of the series and it came in a defeat by 42 runs, which is a sentence that could describe a decade of Irish ODI cricket. With Curtis Campher's 84 alongside it, Ireland had two men score 193 between them and still fall short — because 343 requires three such innings, not two.
The frustration for Ireland is that this is not a side being outclassed. Three hundred and one chasing 344 is a competitive performance. It is also the fourth time in this series that Ireland have played well enough to win a different match and not well enough to win this one, and a consolation victory at Stormont would be a meaningful thing for a group building under a new coach toward World Cup qualification.
Afghanistan's first ODI assignment under Rahmat Shah as full-time captain has gone about as well as a first assignment can: series won with a match to spare, two centurions in the decisive game, and a record second-wicket partnership. The temptation at 3-0 is to rest the frontline bowlers and give the fringe squad a run.
The counter-argument is the ranking points, and the fact that Afghanistan's ODI planning now runs through the next World Cup cycle in a way it never has before. A 4-0 result on the road against a Full Member in their own conditions is the sort of line that matters when seedings are calculated, and Rahmat has shown no inclination this month to take his foot off anything.
These two sides came up through the Associate ranks together, arrived at Full Member status within months of one another, and have spent the decade since diverging. Afghanistan's white-ball cricket has become genuinely elite — World Cup semi-finalists, a spin attack that any team in the world would take, and now a batting order that makes 343 away from home. Ireland's has remained the thing it has always been: capable of beating anybody on a given afternoon and unable to do it often enough.
Stormont has been the venue for a good deal of that shared history, including some of the closest matches either side has played. A series that finishes 3-1 rather than 4-0 does not change the trajectory. It would, though, be the first evidence in a fortnight that the gap is a matter of finishing rather than of quality.
The Verdict — A Dead Rubber That Neither Side Is Treating as One
Afghanistan have won every completed match of this series and have the two batters in the best form on either side. Ireland have produced the two highest individual scores of the tour outside Atal's 143 and lost anyway. On form, this is not close.
What makes the final ODI worth watching is what each side needs from it. Afghanistan want the sweep and the ranking points, and a captain in his first series will not be inclined to experiment. Ireland need a result to take out of a summer that has otherwise produced good individual cricket and no wins — and at a ground where 300 is now clearly gettable, their batting has already demonstrated it can post the score required.
The match turns on the first fifteen overs with the new ball. If Ireland remove Atal and Zadran early, Stormont becomes a genuinely even contest for the first time this month. If they do not, Afghanistan bat once and the series ends 4-0.
Bilateral ODI cricket in August is where World Cup qualification quietly gets decided, and Afghanistan have spent this tour making a point.
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