Milestones for O’Brien, Amir as Test poised for close finish
dublin — Ireland were 319 for 7 in their second innings and lead Pakistan by 139 runs after the fourth day of their one-off Test at Malahide Castle.
Kevin O’Brien scored Ireland’s first Test hundred in 186 balls, in- cluding 10 fours.
It was the 34-year-old O’Brien’s first century for Ireland since he made the fastest-ever World Cup hundred by any batsman, off 50 balls, against England at Bangalore in 2011.
O’Brien frustrated Pakistan’s hopes of an early finish.
Ireland were 212-6 at the end of the afternoon session, with O’Brien sharing an unbeaten seventh-wicket stand of 55 with Stuart Thompson (22).
Resuming their second innings on 64-0 after following on and still needing 116 more runs to make Pakistan bat again, Ireland slumped to 123-4 by lunch as Mohammad Amir shrugged off a nagging knee problem to take two of the wickets.
The left-arm paceman also removed Gary Wilson (12), caught by Haris Sohail in the slips, after lunch for his 100th wicket.
The other wicket after lunch was Paul Stirling, trapped lbw by Mohammad Abbas for 11.
Earlier, O’Brien led Ireland’s recovery with circumspect batting, with his 67 coming from 120 balls and including seven fours. He became the first Irishman to record a test half-century.
Pakistan declared their first innings on 310-9 early on day three. The first day was washed out.
The Irish are playing in their first match in the longest format after being awarded test status last June.