Ireland vs Afghanistan, 2nd ODI, Afghanistan tour of Ireland, 2026 - CommentaryIRE vs AFG, 2nd ODI, Afghanistan tour of Ireland, 2026 - Commentary

That's all we have from this one. Until next time, it's goodbye!

Rahmat Shah | Afghanistan captain: Our top order played really well. Assessed the conditions early, that's why we made 300 runs. We missed 20-30 runs. Target would've been 330 had we not lost wickets in the middle. There was a wind blowing to one side. Used the fast bowlers against the wind. And spinner using the wind side. Rashid bowled really well. We are very lucky to have a bowler like Rashid. Fast bowlers, spinners, we gave the plan and they executed the plan really well. That's why the result.

Paul Stirling | Ireland captain: Slight bit of rust there in all three facets. I think we'll look back at it over the next 24 hours and see that we did a lot of good things. Probably fractionally off the pace. In the field we could've had a chance for a run out or two. Sort of fell away with the bat at the back end, and with the ball at the start. Plenty to work on. They all showed what they can do (the new players). It's about putting that together as a package. When you do start with three new faces, you've got to build a little bit from the ground up but they've shown signs that they belong and hopefully they've got good futures. We're gonna have to adapt quickly. In the past we've negated Rashid well by taking his wickets away. You've seen we were able to capitalise on the other bowlers here. We were always up with the run rate. I think at halfway through the second innings we were in with a great chance of winning the game. We did sort of capitulate a little bit at the back end. Take the wickets away from Rashid and it looks like we're fairly well in the game.

Rashid Khan | POTM: Here you get the sharp spin which I really like, especially in these conditions. More importantly the challenge was hitting the right areas consistently. That's something I was focussing on. Length of 5-5.5 meters, bowling into the stumps, brings you into the game. As a spinner I feel you just need to keep things simple, hit the right area on a good length, 5-5.5 meters. Keep mixing it up. Leg-spin, wrong 'un, flipper - but more important is the length. Make sure it's finishing into the stumps. Keep it simple and keep enjoying your magic. One game doesn't make us the best team. We had a very tough series against India. Some areas in the bowling unit we need to improve. From fast bowling perspective, especially in the death, we haven't got opportunity to bowl in the death (in this game). But I feel with the new ball we can be much better than that. Against India we did so many mistakes. For us it's a great opportunity where we as a team collectively come and bowl as good as possible on the right length. For the next WC it's going to be good preparation. I feel like control with the bowling, in the fast bowling unit, I think we can be much better in that.

19:05 Local Time, 18:05 GMT, 23:35 IST: Rashid spins Afghanistan to victory as they go 1-0 up in the series. His brilliance made all the difference in a chase that was within sight for Ireland after the start they got. They were 96/1 after just 14 overs thanks to a maiden ODI fifty from Cade Carmichael. But Rashid came on and changed the game with a couple of quick wickets early on, removing Balbirnie and Tector. The quicks then made a couple of inroads through the middle before Rashid came back and took a bunch of wickets to wrap it all up. No surprise he's Player of the Match.

Rashid Khan to Byron McDonough, THATS OUT!! Bowled!!

Rashid Khan to Jai Moondra, THATS OUT!! Caught!!