Rashid’s unbeaten 37 gets Afghanistan home in Belfast, and into the 2027 World Cup

Ireland were three wickets from a result they would have talked about for years. Afghanistan had slipped to 176 for 7 at Stormont on Monday, still 31 runs short, and Gavin Hoey’s legspin had taken four of those wickets out of a chase that had looked like a formality while Rahmanullah Gurbaz was batting. Then Rashid Khan dug in. He faced 43 balls for 37 not out, refused to swing at anything until the target was down to 15, and clipped a brace off Harry Tector in the 45th over to win the third one-day international by three wickets.

Ireland were 128 for 8, and then they were not

Rahmat Shah, in his first series in charge of Afghanistan’s ODI side, put Ireland in on a Belfast pitch that looked cut for seam. The spinners took it apart instead. AM Ghazanfar had Lorcan Tucker lbw, held a return catch off Curtis Campher and had Ben Calitz caught, finishing with 3 for 29. Rashid trapped Cade Carmichael in front before bowling Harry Tector and Mark Adair too, and took 3 for 44. Ireland slid from 63 for 2 to 128 for 8 and the innings was as good as done.

Jai Moondra and Hoey then put on 76 for the ninth wicket, the highest ninth-wicket stand Ireland have managed in a one-day international. The record they broke was 43, by Gary Wilson and Andy McBrine. Moondra, batting in only his second ODI innings, made 31 with five fours and used his feet against the spin far more readily than anyone above him had. Hoey top scored with 36 from 67 balls before Azmatullah Omarzai bowled him going for a big one in the 47th over. Ireland finished on 206, and 34 extras, 27 of them wides, tell you how untidy Afghanistan were with a game there for the taking.

Gurbaz went early and hard, then it got complicated

Rahmanullah Gurbaz decided the chase was a short one. He went after the seamers, took 50 off 45 balls with four sixes in it, and Afghanistan were 53 for 1 in the tenth over. His 71 from 77 was his eighth ODI fifty and it should have been the end of the argument.

Hoey had other ideas. He slowed the ball down, bowled at the stumps, and got Sediqullah Atal to drag to long-on for 27. Hashmatullah Shahidi picked out deep square for 22. Darwish Rasooli swiped across the line and toe-ended one to midwicket. Gurbaz went too, caught by Adair, and Hoey had 4 for 34 from his ten overs. Adair had already bowled Rahmat Shah for 4 with a ball that nipped back past the inside edge, and when he had Omarzai caught at cover, Afghanistan were 176 for 7 with Rashid and a comeback seamer left.

That seamer was Yamin Ahmadzai, back in the side for his first ODI since 2022, and he faced 26 balls for 4 not out. Nobody will put that in a highlights package. It was also the reason Afghanistan got home with 31 balls to spare, because it let Rashid take his time at the other end.

Two-nil up, and a World Cup place in the bank

Afghanistan lead the five-match series 2-0 with two to play. The opener at Bready on 5 August was washed out without a ball, and Rashid’s 6 for 34 won the second there by 92 runs two days later.

The bigger prize came with this one. Eight direct places at the 2027 World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia go to the highest-ranked sides in the ICC ODI rankings on 30 September, alongside hosts South Africa and Zimbabwe, and Afghanistan sit eighth. West Indies, in tenth behind Bangladesh, can no longer climb past them before the cut-off. So Afghanistan go to a fourth successive World Cup and the two-time champions go to the qualifier, which the ICC has scheduled for 22 February to 23 March next year.

Ireland get another go at Stormont on 12 August, with the fifth ODI there on 15 August. On Monday’s evidence they have a legspinner worth building around. Hoey, 24, and the son of former Ireland spinner Conor Hoey, took the only four-wicket haul in a match full of good spin bowling, and he did it against a side that plays the turning ball better than most.

Stay across the road to the 2027 World Cup