Pakistan Prime Minister and former cricketer Imran Khan on Monday heaped praises on the Afghanistan cricket team for registering its maiden win in the Test format after defeating Ireland in the one-off match.
"Congratulations to Afghanistan on their team's first ever win in test cricket. The Afghan cricketers have achieved amazing successes in such a short period of their exposure to international cricket," Khan tweeted.
Afghanistan clinched their maiden Test victory by seven wickets against Ireland at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Uttarakhand's capital Dehradun on Monday.
Rahmat Shah scored a 122-ball 76 and Ishanullah Janat played an unbeaten knock of 65 off 129 balls as Afghanistan notched up a 147-run target on the fourth morning of the one-off Test match.
Ireland began the day in the hope of picking up a couple of early wickets. However, Afghanistan batsmen were well-prepared to handle.
The duo of Shah and Janat kept the boundaries flowing and it did not take long for them to reach their respective half-centuries. First, Shah crossed the fifty-run mark with a boundary off George Dockrell. Janat followed Shah as he hit two boundaries and a six to reach his half-century.
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Both the batsmen crossed the 100-run partnership with Afghanistan needing just 32 runs to seal the deal. Unfortunately, the stand was broken and two wickets were lost - Shah was stumped off James Cameron-Dow's delivery and Mohammad Nabi was run-out - when Afghanistan needed just three runs to win.
With Janat and Hashmatullah Shahidi in the middle, the latter found the fence off Cameron-Dow, and history was made.
An elated Afghan skipper Asghar Afghan said that the victory made his team happy and was a historic day for Afghanistan.
"Happy for today, it is a very historic day for Afghanistan, for Afghanistan people, for our team, for our cricket board. We are very happy. When [we play] a lot of Test matches, we mature. Nowadays, we are playing a lot in Afghanistan first-class cricket. Before, it was three-day, two-day cricket. Now we are playing first-class cricket," International Cricket Council (ICC) quoted Afghan as saying.