Imamul Haq leads Pakistan to five-wicket win over Ireland
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Ireland's bid for an unlikely victory in its inaugural Test came up short as debutant Imamul Haq steered Pakistan out of trouble and to a five-wicket win on the final day on Tuesday.
Chasing 160 to win, Pakistan slumped to 14-3 and looked in real danger of becoming just the fourth team to lose a Test after enforcing the follow-on.
Imam showed his maturity and class to guide the tourists away from danger, scoring the winning runs to finish on 74 not out as Pakistan reached 160-5 just before tea.
It justified his call-up by Pakistan's chief selector, his uncle and former Test captain Inzamamul Haq.
Imam shared a vital 126-run stand with Babar Azam (59) for the fourth wicket.
The Irish can be proud of taking Pakistan all the way in their first match in cricket's longest format after being awarded Test status last June, especially having been bundled out for 130 in their first innings.
Resuming on Tuesday on 319-7 in their second innings after being asked to follow on, they added only 20 runs to their total but still left a challenging target for a Pakistan team that has a recent history of stumbling in small run chases.
And when Pakistan lost three wickets two to paceman Tim Murtagh in the opening 27 balls of the reply, Ireland had a strong chance of becoming the first team to win its maiden test after Australia against England in 1877 in cricket's first Test.
Imam held his nerve, hitting eight fours in a 121-ball knock.
Babar, who was dropped on 9, was run out 20 runs short of the target.
Earlier, Mohammad Abbas, benefiting from plenty of swing movement in overcast conditions, took the final three wickets of Ireland's second innings, including century-maker Kevin O'Brien.
Resuming on 118, O'Brien slashed at the first ball he faced on Tuesday a wide one from Abbas and edged to first slip.
Abbas also took the wickets of Boyd Rankin (6) and Tyrone Kane (14), who were both bowled, to finish with figures of 5-66. He had nine wickets for the match.
Pakistan now heads to England for a two-test series, starting next week at Lord's.
Ireland doesn't play another test this summer as it eases into life in the longer format. India visits for two Twenty20s next month.
Only three teams have won a test after following on England in 1894 and 1981, and India in 2001. Australia was the opponent on each occasion.
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Comments (68) Closed
May 15, 2018 04:32pm
They are no:-1 in T20
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May 15, 2018 04:40pm
Really scared of the outcome
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May 15, 2018 04:41pm
All the best Ireland.
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May 15, 2018 04:45pm
And they wish to play the world's best team...
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May 15, 2018 04:48pm
As I have been saying, this side is the worst test team ever with the possible exception when packer players were banned
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May 15, 2018 04:50pm
what fun
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May 15, 2018 05:07pm
This is Pakistan Cricket at its best. Making every game sooo interesting no matter who is the opponent
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May 15, 2018 05:10pm
Our cricket team is a joke. Playing like this against Ireland who are playing their very first test match. The team seriously lacks talent, as epitomized by their captain Sarfaraz Ahmed, who is the weakest link in the team - terrible in all 3: wicket keeping, batting and captaincy skills.
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May 15, 2018 05:40pm
Ireland playing first test! Commendable!
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May 15, 2018 05:41pm
Two wickets more and Pakistan would be struggling!
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May 15, 2018 05:43pm
What a change of fortune. Pakistan went on about winning by an inning to scrspping by to save the test.
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May 15, 2018 05:44pm
Vey bad captaincy by Sarfraz, it is rule thumb never to enforce follow on.
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May 15, 2018 05:57pm
Ireland will have last laugh
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May 15, 2018 06:28pm
Pakistan is getting challenge from a 'No Ranked' team.
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May 15, 2018 06:44pm
It's high time and the right time for the nephew of PCB's Chief Selector to prove his worth as a dependable opening batsman of green-shirts against Ireland, by far, one of the weakest test- playing nation of the world. If not now, then when?
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May 15, 2018 06:47pm
Well done. We need batsmen who steady the innings.
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May 15, 2018 07:40pm
I was at a loss to see the sole member of our commentary Team Rameez Raja. Why not more. A silly man who has no brains all brawn from Indian Star TV has been hired. Sethi at work.
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May 15, 2018 07:53pm
Trying to watch this match...but just fed up with watching 2 club level teams.
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May 15, 2018 08:04pm
Congratulations Pakistan.
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May 15, 2018 08:22pm
Imam ul Haq just saved life of inzimam ul haq :)
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May 15, 2018 08:28pm
Pakistani batsmen usually show very often collapse batting drill which continued and was nearly close to give another surprise again! I don’t know what’s really wrong with our openers and batting line up.thanks to the young lad for saving our lives .
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May 15, 2018 08:32pm
Cricket is not Ireland's game. Field Hockey is their national sport and the Irish revolutionized the game of rugby by picking players up into the air to prevent them from passing the ball when tackled. Not all the Five Nations use that method. Field Hockey in Ireland is called Hurling.
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May 15, 2018 08:36pm
Not at all an impressive win. The only encouraging aspect is the good performance of new comers Imam, Faheem, Shadab, and Abbas.
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May 15, 2018 08:48pm
Great win! congrats team Pakistan!
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May 15, 2018 08:57pm
Ireland? How low can Pakistan go?
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May 15, 2018 08:58pm
Who will Pakistan play next? Girls under 5s team? Ridiculous
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May 15, 2018 08:58pm
What is up with Imam Haq's glasses? Can't he wear contact lenses like regular people?
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May 15, 2018 09:03pm
Where are all the Imam-ul-Haq haters. TBH Azhar Ali, Asad Shafiq and Sarfraz Ahmed are the most senior batsmen and looked the worst. Bring in more youth and get rid of the dead wood
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May 15, 2018 09:08pm
Shabash Pakistan Zindabad, good play Ireland.
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May 15, 2018 09:16pm
Congrats Pakistan. I have three main concerns; firstly it is Sarfraz Ahmad, who not only failed again in both the innings but dropped three catches of fast bowlers. Sarfraz' keeping to spinners is even worse where he often fumbles the ball. Any cure? Secondly, Junaid Khan surely would have been a better choice than Rahat Ali. And lastly, A proven world class batsman, Azhar Ali must be involved in limited overs game including PSL otherwise keeping him out of touch ( we play very few tests) for longer periods wouldn't help Pakistan's cause in test matches.
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May 15, 2018 09:30pm
Battle of equals
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May 15, 2018 09:48pm
A very close match and luckily pakistan came out.
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May 15, 2018 09:57pm
Same old story - batting collapse
Pakistan should only allow its batsmen to play in English and Australian conditions..to get used to the conditions
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May 15, 2018 09:59pm
Wonder what was done to the ball overnight, it started swinging prodigiously in the morning.
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May 15, 2018 10:04pm
@Ashpak - Proud Indian are you making reference to the fast bowlers?
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May 15, 2018 10:06pm
@Shahid that's unfair on Sarfraz. It takes a bit of getting used to a new bouncy surface. I agree with the Junaid Khan comment, diamond bowler.
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May 15, 2018 10:22pm
Whoever is given the chance by this biased cricket selection committee, will perform. Dropped Fawad Alam and included Imam-ul-Haq just because he is a relative of Inzimam-ul-Haq. Shame on them!
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May 15, 2018 10:32pm
A non performing captain never can lead confidently.Batting woes remain a concern for ever for the team.See the batting of the most players in both innings!Certainly Pakistan is lucky winning the match.
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May 15, 2018 10:37pm
Battle of equal standards..but pakistan fought hard with very very hardwork n luck...
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May 15, 2018 10:47pm
Wow. If not for an unlucky first innings collapse by Ireland, Pakistan were doomed.
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May 15, 2018 11:03pm
Victory is victory as nobody can deny its sweetness after an engrossing tussle between the bat and ball. Sarfaraz, no doubt is in the middle of a lean patch, but happens to be the only choice right now for the capatain's job. So, the responsibility of captaincy is undoubtedly on his mind at this time. Once the team settles down into a rhythm, I think it's only a matter of time. However, Azhar Ali, the other opener needs to bat one-down (his original spot) and a regular opener should be brought into the side by replacing either Haris Sohail or Rahat Ali, depending on the conditions. Lastly, it should be a very good eye-opener for Pakistan ahead of the two Tests against England now.
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May 15, 2018 11:06pm
@Ashpak - Proud Indian yeah but still better than India
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May 15, 2018 11:30pm
Pakistan survived.
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May 15, 2018 11:37pm
@Ashpak - Proud Indian a remark from a jealous person.
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May 15, 2018 11:43pm
These unemployed Indians don't have any job other than to hoover around Pakistan news with their negative comments.
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May 15, 2018 11:48pm
@Ashpak - Proud Indian certainly completely agreed
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May 16, 2018 12:51am
@Farasat He is very good pure merit and deserve his place in the side in over cast condition and ball keeping low.
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May 16, 2018 12:55am
@Shahid I am not sure about keeping Junaid Khan and Usman Shenwari outside of bowling squad.Both would be ahead of Rahat Ali who seems to be extra baggae.Azhar Ali out of form since last NZ series.Need to stop including him till he bats properly in First class or A side.He is letting team down by constant failure now.He is failing continuously and needs break for some time.Imamul Haq,Faheem Ashraf,Shadab Khan were bright spots in Pakistan team.
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May 16, 2018 01:04am
@Taimoor Sultan: Imam played well and one have to appreciate, but to say that he deserve to be in team before batsmen in Pakistan with much better average than Imam, that is different matter.
Just think: K O'Brien made highest score in Irish 1st in (40 rs) and made highest score in 2nd in too (118 rs). So it seems he is better than any batsman played this match, right? ... Obviously not. He did performed better than any batsmen in this match, but K O'Brien FC ave is 38 runs and that is good for Irish batsmen but not so good at international level.
Now think of Fawad Alam in away debut match (2009): Fawad as opener, made 16 runs (2nd highest) in 1st inning when team got out for 90. In 2nd inning he made 168 runs (highest and more than half of total) when team got out at 320. At the time, Fawad FC ave was 58. Result, he was soon dropped from team in 2009, just after 2 matches. So unjust, as he deserved to be in team more than Yunus, Misbah, Azhar or any Pakistani batsmen.
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May 16, 2018 03:15am
Umpiring was not good at all.
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May 16, 2018 03:30am
@Umair Riztoo Vettori used to wear glasses, too I recall. Never hampered his performance. And I'm glad that Imam has preformed so well that the only thing his critics find wrong with him are his glasses.
Well played on your first test Ireland. You made us a lot more uncomfortable than we were expecting. To do what has only been done on 2 or 3 previous occasions, comeback from a follow on, and that too on test debut is almost miraculous. Well bowled Murtagh and well batted Kevin O'Brien! O'Brien had featured in some of Ireland's most memorable games: the innings against us in 2007 and that century against England in 2011. That he is Ireland's first test centuriom is only fitting.
Questions to answer for Pakistan. We won because of the strong rearguard by the newbies: Shadab, Faheem and Imam. Asad, Babar and Azhar must step up now. Sarfraz's keeping has been dreadful: Amir should have ended up with a lot more wickets in this match. He bowled beautifully. Let's hope that knee heals.
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May 16, 2018 03:31am
@Tariq Fawad never opened the innings. How could he have filled Imam's slot?
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May 16, 2018 03:41am
Ireland put up a brave fight. If they had played their first innings like they played their second innings, who knows what would have happened? Congratulations to both the teams.
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May 16, 2018 04:03am
Make Shadab or Fahim the captain.
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May 16, 2018 04:36am
Good job Pakistan
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May 16, 2018 04:56am
The umpiring was pathetic and the lbw decision of sarfaraz was appalling.
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May 16, 2018 05:57am
@Dr. Salaria, Aamir Ahmad
Imam did justify his selection by playing a great innings and winning the match. Now you can stop whining.
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May 16, 2018 07:08am
Azhar drops catches and score very little or no runs..must be related to akmals
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May 16, 2018 07:12am
Big scare for Pakistan and a wake up call
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May 16, 2018 07:26am
@Ammar Gill . The ICC Test rankings says it all. No reason for jealousy.
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May 16, 2018 07:30am
@Analyses
Ok,bring the talent if you have better than this. It is very easy to find faults.No doubt,Ire is playing their first test match but they have experiened players who have the huge first class cricket experience playing in the county cricket in England.They have different playing conditions which their players know hiw to use.
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May 16, 2018 07:46am
Lets move on to series with England!
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May 16, 2018 10:14am
It is glaringly obvious the weakest link was Azhar Ali and Sarfaraz. Pakistan should experiment after the success of Imam, a youngster to introduce two talented batsmen Faqar and Asif, perhaps dropping Harris Sohai. If it was not for some serious swing bowling from Abbas, a higher target may have been out of reach by Pakistan. Amir should sit with the great Wasim Akram to bring some swing in his repertoire. From little coaching experience in England, Amir’s grip on the ball is too tight so swing is out of the question, could someone put in a word to Amir to loosen the grip on the ball and with luck he will return to being great again.
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May 16, 2018 11:49am
Congrats Team Cricket Pakistan...Well done.Keep up the moral high and good work. We as nation need some good news atleast in sports... otherwise in other fornts daily we hear speeches of these corrupt and sick politicians....
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May 16, 2018 12:57pm
I bet England will thrash them. The batting is not that weak that can't chase down a meagre target that too against a new test side, but the fact is that they crumble when under pressure.
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May 16, 2018 06:34pm
@Brijesh Win by even 1 run is WIN!
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May 16, 2018 06:35pm
@manzoor Did you really watch the match playing conditions before commenting here? Ireland cricketers have been playing in England for almost double the Pakistan's team first class matches
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May 17, 2018 10:11am
Still Pakistan team needs improvement in test cricket especially our fielding and batting. Technically Ireland should have defeated this weak Pakistan team but still fortunately Pakistan won. Any how Pakistan is not yet ready to be able to face England. Inzi made big mistake of fielding T20 for Test Series which makes no sense.
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