A primary five-wicket haul in Take a look at cricket for Mark Adair put Eire in a robust place after the opening day of their one-off Take a look at towards Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.
The Northern Irish all-rounder posted figures of 5 for 39 to assist bowl the opposition out for 155 after Afghan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi gained the toss and elected to bat.
An in any other case glorious day for Eire was dampened by the late fall of the wickets of Curtis Campher for 49, ending a 60-run third-wicket stand with Harry Tector, and of night-watchman Theo van Woerkom.
Eire seemed to be cruising in reply till a late Afghan fight-back led by spinner Zia-ur-Rehman left Andy Balbirnie’s facet 4 wickets down and 55 runs wanting the Afghan complete.
With lower than half an hour of play left within the day, the Afghanistan left-armer claimed Campher, one shy of a half-century, and Van Woerkom clear bowled.
With out its injured talisman Rashid Khan, Afghanistan struggled to search out fluency in its first innings and solely had 4 batters attain double figures on what seemed to be batting floor.
Adair opened his account for the day within the seventh over when he had Noor Ali Zadran caught by Balbirnie for simply seven.
Then when fellow opener Ibrahim Zadran, Noor Ali’s nephew, fell for 53 it capped off a middle-order collapse the place Afghanistan went from 66-3 to 90-6.
An undefeated 41 from Karim Janat, nonetheless, gave them some respectability.
Eire’s response appeared to be faltering when each openers fell inside 10 overs till the partnership of Campher and Tector.
Nonetheless and not using a win since gaining Take a look at standing in 2017, Eire will resume play on Day two with Tector (32 not out) and Paul Stirling within the center.
Afghanistan additionally grew to become a Take a look at nation in the identical yr and havs since claimed three wins within the format, together with one towards Eire in 2019.