Phil Salt led England to T20’s first victory against Ireland in the opening match of the three game series

The day Bethell became the youngest player of captain, an English team, his first act as Harry Brook skipper was to win the draw and put the hosts to beat.

With all the pre-match discussions of the quantity of cricket, or of its absence, played by Ireland in the preparation of this series, there will be a lot of interest in in which the openers Paul Stirling and Ross Adair have succeeded.

Although there were certainly a few cases where the pair seemed to seek their rhythm at the beginning of the Overs, Ireland was 49-0 at the end of the power game, with Stirling in particular providing a big blow.

From the Six skipper quartet, two were taken to the roof of the hotel tent on the compact field north of Dublin.

After providing the solid start, the opening pair quickly fell in succession with Adair taken on the border by Phil Salt in the eighth during the scanning attempt on the side of the Liam Dawson bowling leg.

Nine deliveries and 10 points later, Stirling followed after slipping the bowling of Adil Rashid with Will Jacks taking the privilege.

The arrivals of Harry Tector, then Lorcan Tucker, in Crease, saw Ireland run an increased number of singles for the rest of their sleeves, but the postman added seven limits within his 61 undefeated of 36 balls.

Tector, who raised his own half-century with a six-year trip, almost lasted until the end of the sleeves, only to exceed the penultimate delivery in the gloves of Jos Buttler.