Harry Tector produced the innings of the night - his highest T20 international score - but anything Ireland could do, India could do better as they powered to a seven wickets win in the first T20 international at Malahide.

Roared on by around 7,000 fanatical fans, every boundary greeted by cheers louder than the previous one,
India showed just why they are the world’s best in the shortest format, as they reached their target of 109 in just 9.2 overs, hitting seven sixes and 11 fours.

Deepak Hooda, sent in as opener instead of Ruturaj Gaekwad, hit back to back boundaries off Josh Little to win the match with the minimum of fuss and leave the Ireland bowlers with plenty to ponder ahead of the second game back at Malahide tomorrow afternoon.

The proudest Irishman was Bready’s Conor Olphert who received his first cap from Ryan Eagleson before the match, and apart from a nervous first delivery which sailed over the fine leg boundary and the last, which was crashed through backward point by India skipper Hardik Pandya, he conceded just six runs of his other 10 deliveries.

After a glorious day in Dublin, the rain which had wiped out the two Super Series games at Waringstown yesterday, cruelly reached Malahide 15 minutes before the scheduled start. It would be another two hours and 20 minutes before the crowd saw any play but they kept themselves entertained, with any sight of one of their blue-shirted heroes raising the decibels.

The Indian fans hadn’t long to wait for the first wicket, Ireland captain Andrew Balbirnie playing down the wrong line and the ball from Bhuvneshwar Kumar clipping the top of off stump, the perfect delivery for an opening bowler.

Paul Stirling hit his first ball to the extra cover boundary but trying to repeat the shot next ball, he could only sky it to the fielder and Ireland were six for two, when Tector strode to the wicket.

He was able to watch Gareth Delany take eight off the remaining three balls of the over before he had to face and maybe he knew it was going to be his day when his first seven runs came from three edges and an overthrow.

But after that he took control, hitting off spinner slow left armer Axar Patel for successive fours and Umar Malik, the one Indian debutant, for a four and a six, the maximum sailing into the crowd at mid-wicket from a delivery timed at 90mph.

The one bowler he – or indeed any of the Ireland batsmen - could not score freely off was leg spinner Yuzvendra Chahal. One of three survivors from the team that hammered Ireland in two matches here at Malahide four years ago, Chahal conceded just 11 singles in his three overs.

Last time he took six wickets across the two matches, yesterday he had to make do with one, Lorcan Tucker caught at deep mid-wicket, going for his third six of the innings, the other two, however, had come off the pace of Pandya, one of four Indian bowlers who had an economy rate in double figures.

Delany had perished in the fourth over, getting a bottom edge to the keeper and George Dockrell, preferred to Curtis Campher and the other batter who made it to the middle could manage only four singles. But by then Tector was in full swing, taking 15 off Avesh Khan’s last over to take him past his previous best T20I score of 60 back in his second game; unfortunately it was a one-man show.

Little was given the new ball but Ishan Kishan, one of the stars of the Indian Premier League, hit him for 14 in his first over and when he crashed Craig Young’s first two balls for a four and a six, there were thoughts of an embarrassingly quick finish.

But Young, finally pitching the ball up, got his man two balls later, wrecking Kishan’s stumps and his next ball crashed into Suryakumar Yadav’s pads to leave the North Down man on a hat-trick. It was well defended by Pandya but it wouldn’t have mattered as he had overstepped and Pandya crashed the next ball down the ground for six.

Andy McBrine, chosen as the only front-line spinner, was on a hiding to nothing in a 12-over game and Pandya and Hooda didn’t miss out, hitting him for three sixes but there was still time for one more Ireland success, Little trapping Pandya leg before with another full delivery.

It gives Ireland hope that with bigger contributions with the bat and more consistency with the ball, they can get closer to the powerhouse of T20 cricket tomorrow.