Ireland beat Afghanistan by four wickets

DEHRADUN (Agencies): Andy Balbirnie gave Afghanistan a taste of their own medicine Tuesday, smashing a brilliant unbeaten 145 as Ireland claimed their first win of a punishing series.

 The 28-year-old Dubliner anchored Ireland´s innings as they passed Afghanistan´s 256-8 with an over to spare to win by four wickets. Najibullah Zadran hit an unbeaten 104 as Afghanistan recovered from losing five cheap wickets to set a score that they must have thought was enough to preserve their unbeaten record in the series. But Balbirnie hit eight sixes and eight fours to set up the morale-boosting win that levelled the five match 50 over series 1-1, with two matches to play. Ireland were whitewashed in the earlier T20 games in which a series of world records fell.