'Fantastic' Ireland beat Afghanistan in T20 opener

Afghanistan 111 (18.4 overs): Ishaq 32 , Nabi 25; White 4-20, Little 3-18, McCarthy 2-14 Ireland 149-6- (20 overs): Tector 56*, Stirling 25, Balbirnie 22; Rashid 3-19, Kharote 2-16Ireland win by 38 points Full Scorecard

Tector's fifth T20 half-century helped Ireland reach 149-6 in the United Arab Emirates.

White took four wickets and Josh Little a hat-trick as Afghanistan fell short by 38 points.

"It was a fantastic performance, a real team performance," said the captain Irishman Paul Stirling. After losing the one-day international series 2-0, Stirling added: "It's no easy feat to beat Afghanistan. I know it's not necessarily their country, but they play a huge amount of cricket here.

"We need to put this behind us and see if we can win a series because it will probably only get tougher, and we expect Afghanistan continues to improve as well. "

Ireland took center stage in Sharjah as Andrew Balbirnie and Stirling established an opening partnership.

Balbirnie was the first to be dismissed when he was caught by Rahmanullah Gurbaz on the 22nd, and Lorcan Tucker was next to fall for four in the seventh.

Returning captain Rashid Khan inflicted a quickfire double when Stirling was caught by Ibrahim Zadran, and the spinner bowled Curtis Campher's first ball.

However, Tector's stand was crucial as Ireland finished their 20 overs at 149-6.

Ireland dealt an early blow when Mark Adair removed Gurbaz with the very first ball of the innings and Little struck twice in the set. second to eliminate Sediqullah Atal then Azmatullah Omarzai, to leave Afghanistan in difficulty at 4-3.

Wickets for White and Barry McCarthy restricted Afghanistan to 50-5 in nine overs, before the former dismissed Ijaz Ahmadzai and Kharote with consecutive balls and t...