Questionable tactics from Ireland paved the way for Afghanistan’s laudable, series-clinching win in Belfast. The hosts dropped the promising Jai Moondra in favour of fellow newbie Liam McCarthy despite having an opportunity to draw level. He returned figures of 70/1, with his only wicket transpiring against a slogging lower-order at the death. Chasing 344, Ireland then crawled at the pace of a snail, showing no urgency to score in the PowerPlay despite having been at the beck and call of spinners in the previous three fixtures during the middle phase. Afghanistan registered victory by 42 runs, warding off an increasingly proactive Andrew Balbirnie and half-centurion Curtis Campher.

Ireland won the toss and opted to bowl. When Rahmanullah Gurbaz, for whom the floor was lava, played one shot too many to depart for a dozen, Paul Stirling may have thought his move stood vindicated. He was in for a rude, slow-burning shock. Ibrahim Zadran and Sediqullah Atal added an enormous 231 for the second wicket, exposing the lack of variety in Ireland’s pace attack in the absence of the left-arm seamer. In the process, Zadran became the third fastest batter to 2,000 ODI runs after Shubman Gill and Hashim Amla, with an archetypally pleasing slash through the off-side ushering the opener to the coveted milestone. Atal was on a mission of his own following the twin failure to convert healthy starts.

He pinged a half-volley to the ropes, the symphony of the shot upholding the famous adage that there is nothing more beautiful in the game than a southpaw’s cover drive. Zadran accessed the vacant leg-side with an effortless pull off Byron McDonough, whose three wickets came too late for Ireland’s liking. By that time, the calm and collected duo had scored enough for Rashid Khan and AM Ghazanfar to wreak havoc. The pitch at the Civic Service club wasn’t exactly a featherbed, but a tight grouping of deliveries around the off-stump went missing, just like the ideas in their brains as the pair turned into an immovable object at the crease. Zadran’s fifty was celebrated through a shimmying loft from Atal down the ground. That too, versus leg-spinner Gavin Hoey, the pick of Ireland’s bowlers in the last clash. He later nudged the partnership past 150 with an identical maximum, backing himself to clear the fielder at long-off.

His sublime touch didn’t spare his partner either, for Zadran copped a tonk on his arm at the non-striker’s end in a bid to protect his midriff. He needed a pain-relieving spray before tearing apart Bryon, whose angry riposte to a lofted drive was dispatched behind backward square leg. Short balls are simply no-go territory in front of Zadran, the receiver of a bear hug from a young fan upon the accomplishment of his seventh ODI hundred. Hot on his partner’s heels, Atal notched up three figures on his 25th birthday and took due advantage of the license he now possessed. Zadran, however, wasn’t a part of this freewheeling assault, with Hoey being the beneficiary of his padded ricochet onto the stumps.

McCarthy’s eighth over kicked off with two boundaries, albeit Atal’s dismissal to the leggie’s penultimate ball spared Ireland the blushes. The tourists weren’t able to consolidate much henceforth, losing six wickets in quick succession as Mark Adair managed a fairly decent economy of six to go along with his double strike in a run-fest. In reply, Ireland struggled to lay the foundation, with the fact that Balbirnie reached his fifty at the halfway mark bearing testimony to their lethargic attitude. Paul Stirling lived dangerously, walking across his stumps and missing an ambitious whip to narrowly evade a plumb verdict before bisecting the wicketkeeper and gully via a streaky edge. Yamin Ahmadzai was making the ball talk, cutting the opposition skipper into half, to aid Azmatullah Omarzai’s penny-pinching spell.