Afghanistan knock Ireland out, qualify for the 2019 ODI World Cup

Afghanistan beat Ireland by five wickets to make their way into ODI World Cup 2019 to be held in England.

Afghanistan beat Ireland by five wickets to make their way into ODI World Cup 2019 to be held in England.

The Afghans joined West Indies to complete the ten teams for the World Cup. The others are the top eight teams of the ICC ODI rankings, which includes all the Test playing nations barring Ireland, whose hopes were dashed after this defeat.

Having already earned Test status, this will be Afghanistan's second successive ODI World Cup after they also featured in the 2015 edition in Australia and New Zealand, famously defeating Scotland by one wicket in Dunedin.

Afghanistan returned from the brink after having lost first three group matches but managed to qualify for the Super Six after Nepal upset Hong Kong.

Captain Asghar Stanikzai led from the front with a calm and collective knock of 39 off just 29 balls as Afghanistan knocked off the 210-run target with five wickets in hand.

The chase was never smooth though, they lost wickets at regular intervals after an 86-run opening stand to get reduced to 181 for 5. The required rate also climbed up to more than a run a ball before Stanikzai and Najibullah Zadran hit some lusty blows and took Afghanistan home in the last over.

The top scorer was wicket-keeper Mohammad Shahzad, who scored 54 off 50 balls to give a flying start to the chase.

Earlier, Afghanistan bowlers did a fine job to restrict an experienced Ireland batting line-up to 209. Rashid Khan was again the pick of the bowlers. The leggie picked up three wickets for 40 runs in his 10 overs and choked the Ireland batting line-up, which once looked well settled to go beyond 250.

Paul Stirling top scored for Ireland with 55 but failed to accelerate when the situation demanded and was run out at the wrong time.