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Afghanistan qualified directly for the 2027 ICC Men’s ODI World Cup after a tense three-wicket win over Ireland in the 3rd ODI at Stormont. Rahmanullah Gurbaz made 71 and Rashid Khan steadied the chase with an unbeaten 37 at 176 for 7. Meanwhile, Gavin Hoey starred with both bat (36) and ball (4-34) in an extraordinary all-round performance for the hosts.
At 176 for 7, Ireland were more than in with a sniff. Nine wickets gone, 30 runs still needed, and Rashid Khan at the crease. What followed was the only thing Afghanistan needed: a masterclass in calm. Rashid made 37 not out. Afghanistan reached 207. They are going to the 2027 World Cup.
Belfast, Northern Ireland: There is a version of this story that begins with Rashid Khan taking 3 for 44 and reducing Ireland to 128 for 8. But the fuller version begins with Gavin Hoey — Ireland’s 22-year-old leg-spinner who had also starred with the bat at the other end of the innings — walking to the middle and doing what nobody expected. By the time Hoey was dismissed in the chase, he had taken 4 for 34 with the ball and played his part in a 76-run ninth-wicket partnership that changed the entire complexion of the day at Civil Service Cricket Club, Stormont.
The match swung. The match swung back. And at the end of it, Afghanistan had won by three wickets and booked their direct qualification for the 2027 ICC Men’s ODI World Cup in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
Ireland’s Innings: From Collapse to Recovery
Afghanistan won the toss and elected to field — a decision that appeared vindicated almost immediately. The Afghanistan spinners, as they so often do on surfaces that offer modest assistance, found ways to make ordinary deliveries difficult. Rashid Khan and Allah Mohammad Ghazanfar shared six wickets between them — Rashid finishing with 3 for 44, Ghazanfar with 3 for 29 — as Ireland folded to 128 for 8, with Afghanistan seemingly set for a straightforward chase of something under 160.
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Then Hoey and Jai Moondra refused to accept the script. The pair added 76 for the ninth wicket — Ireland’s highest partnership for that wicket in ODI history, breaking the previous record of 43 set by Gary Wilson and Andy McBrine — in a stand that pushed the hosts to a competitive 206 all out from 46.3 overs. Hoey made 36, Moondra 31 — significant contributions from players who had no right to be batting together at that stage of the innings. Pacer Yamin Ahmadzai, returning for his first ODI since 2022, took 2 wickets.
Ireland’s total went from looking inadequate to competitive in the space of 15 overs. The match had a new shape entirely.
Gurbaz Anchors, Middle Order Crumbles
Afghanistan’s chase began with the authority of a team that had won the second ODI by 92 runs and arrived at Stormont knowing a victory would clinch their World Cup spot. Rahmanullah Gurbaz provided exactly the platform his side needed — 71 from 77 balls, including his eighth ODI half-century, reached with a heave over deep midwicket that briefly made the rest look like detail.
But Hoey, having already transformed Ireland’s innings with the bat, showed with the ball that his afternoon was not done. He varied his pace, bowled stump-to-stump, and extracted enough from the surface to reduce Afghanistan from the comfort of their early running to the anxiety of 154 for 6. Sediqullah Atal dragged one from Hoey to long-on for 27. Rahmat Shah was bowled by a Mark Adair nip-backer that beat the inside edge. Hashmatullah Shahidi dragged a half-tracker straight to Moondra at deep square. Darwish Rasooli, impatient, swiped across the line and toe-ended it to midwicket. Azmatullah Omarzai, attempting a lofted hit, was caught at cover.
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Four wickets to Hoey. Four for 34 by the end of his spell. Afghanistan were 176 for 7. The crowd at Stormont, buoyed by the collapse they had watched with disbelief turning to belief, sensed the impossible.
Rashid Doesn’t Flinch
Rashid Khan does not panic at 176 for 7. It is one of his defining qualities — the understanding, accumulated across hundreds of high-pressure matches, that the equation is a number and numbers can be solved if you stay at the crease. He played a sedate but confident innings of 37 not out, keeping strike where he needed to, finding the gaps when they were available, never attempting the shot that looked tempting but carried the match’s end with it.
Afghanistan crossed the line in 44.5 overs. The victory gave Afghanistan an unassailable 2-0 lead in the five-match series — the first ODI having been abandoned — and with it direct qualification for the 2027 ICC Men’s ODI World Cup, to be jointly hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia.
The World Cup, to be jointly hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, will be the fourth ODI World Cup in which Afghanistan have participated — their previous appearances coming in 2015, 2019 and 2023. Direct qualification via the top eight of the ODI Super League standings as of September 2026 means Afghanistan will not need to go through the qualifier process.
