Afghanistan’s National Cricket Team has beaten Ireland in the first T20 match of the current series in India on Wednesday.

Opener for Ireland’s team Stuart Thompson hit 56 while Gary Wilson (41 n.o.) and captain William Porterfield (39) added valuable runs as Ireland made 165-5 in Greater Noida.

But it was not enough with Samiullah Shenwari (56) and Mohammad Shahzad (47) helping the Afghans to 171-4 with two overs to spare.

Wednesday’s entertaining performance by Afghanistan’s batsmen give the team a 1-0 lead in the 3-match T20I series. They were on top of the game from the very first over.

The openers managed to get their team to a flying start and put on 51 runs before losing Najeeb Tarakai to the last ball of the fifth over.

The match was the first T20 of the historic series between Afghanistan and Ireland at Greater Noida Sports Complex Ground. It was also the first international match at this venue. Previously, there have been matches played during the Duleep Trophy of 2016-17.

The Board of Control for Cricket in India has given Afghanistan the Noida ground to use as the team’s home ground. Afghanistan makes its debut at hosting a home bilateral series at the Indian ground.

This happened just after former Indian cricketer Lalchand Rajput became the coach of Afghanistan cricket team back in June 2016.

This will be also the first bilateral series for Ireland in India. They have played World Cup matches there but nothing other than that. Both Ireland and Afghanistan are amongst the rapidly rising teams in international cricket.

So far, both the teams have played seven T20Is against each other. Afghanistan holds the upper hand by winning four out of them, while Ireland won three.

In the recent times, Afghanistan has dominated Ireland quite often. Ireland was beaten twice in the recently concluded Desert T20 tournament. Ireland faced a disastrous defeated in the final of the tournament, where they were bowled out for mere 71.

This series seems to be a big one for both the teams and surely a historic one for Afghanistan.

Both teams will meet again in the T20 on Friday.