Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie 'ecstatic' after historic test win over Afghanistan

Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie described the landmark test win over Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi as one of the most special moments in the history of Irish cricket.

After a shaky start to their second innings on Friday, Balbirnie and Lorcan Tucker posted an unbroken partnership of 72 to reach the magic total of 111 and secure a first ever test victory at the eighth time of asking.

Having only been granted test status in 2018, playing their first match against Pakistan in Malahide that summer, the win at the long-form of the game has come comparatively quickly for Ireland - by contrast, it took India 20 years (from 1932 to 1952) and New Zealand 26 years (from 1930 to 1956) to record their first test match victories.

"I think it's right up there," Balbirnie said after the game, before collecting the match trophy.

"There's a lot of talk in world cricket at the moment about the relevance of test cricket, but you ask this whole group about how special this is, and it's right up there.

"For me, I've played a lot of cricket for Ireland. But certainly that's as big a moment for me (as there's been).

"A lot of players before us didn't get the chance to play test cricket. Fortunately, we're part of that history now. We've got to play and we've got to win.

"I think it's a lot bigger than cricket. Hopefully, we can inspire people at home to want to be test match cricketers.

"To win our first test, we're absolutely ecstatic.

"We know we're not going to get 10-15 tests a year, that's fine. But when we do get an opportunity, we're going to do our best to create a result. And create history.

"We've done that now. It's nice to get the monkey off the back. There was a list coming up on the screen every so often about when the first test win came (for