5 things that show that Ireland belong to Test cricket
Ireland began their Test journey by losing against Pakistan in Dublin. Ireland put Pakistan to bat first and were off to a good start by dismissing the openers quickly.
However, fifties from debutant Faheem Ashraf, Shadab Khan, and Asad Shafiq helped Pakistan reach 310/9.
In reply, the Irish were struggling at 7/4 but scores of 40 and 33 from Kevin O'Brien and Gary Wilson took them to 130.
Pakistan enforced the follow-on and Ireland had to bat again. However, this time they had Kevin O'Brien scoring a hundred and Stuart Thompson scoring 53 which helped them reach 339.
Pakistan needed 160 to win the match and chased down the total with 5 wickets to spare.
Ireland may have lost the match but their overall performance wasn't bad. There were some sparks shown by Ireland which showed that they were deserving of their Test status. Here are 5 things that show that Ireland belong to Test cricket.
#5. Taking the match to the final day
Of course, it's not a very tough task to take a Test match to Day 5 but for Ireland who became full members of the ICC just a few months and do not have a very strong cricketing background, it is a pretty commendable thing to do on your Test debut.
Despite the first day being washed out, Ireland had every chance of losing the match before Day 5. For starters, their first innings came to an end very quickly. Their second innings could also have wound up quickly as they were 157/6 at a point but thanks to a certain partnership, they were able to take the match to the final day.