The Ireland batsmen could blame the extreme heat at Stormont yesterday but it was some classy New Zealand bowling which ultimately won the first T20 international.

Set an imposing 174 for victory, which is 34 more than any side has chased down at the Belfast venue, Ireland were bowled out with 10 balls unused for 142 with no batsmen reaching 30.

Indeed only one batsman on either side stayed for any length of time on what Blacks Caps captain Mitchell Santner described as a ‘niggly pitch’ and it was Glenn Phillips' undefeated 69 which was the major difference and he was deservedly named man of the match.

When a team loses three wickets in the powerplay, the odds on them winning are automatically increased but although Josh Little and Mark Adair made early breakthroughs to reduce New Zealand to 38 for three, Lockie Ferguson, the fastest bowler on view, and Jacob Duffy hit back to leave Ireland 41 for four at the end of the sixth over.

The catching was also impressive by the visitors with Santner holding a ridiculously good overhead catch at mid-off to dismiss opposite number Andrew Balbirnie and Ferguson followed up with a superb slower ball to dismiss Gareth Delany and Paul Stirling hit the final ball of the same over tamely to cover point.

It was Santner himself who claimed the big wicket of in-form Harry Tector for just five, caught at backward point, but much like the New Zealand innings, the middle order bounced back with Curtis Campher and George Dockrell hitting five fours between them, although only Campher. once, cleared the boundary.

Just when both batsmen were getting into their stride, however, they lost their wickets, Dockrell holing out to long-on and Camper trapped in front by Ferguson.

Mark Adair never gave up – although he had runs to make up for after conceding 19 in the last over of the New Zealand innings – but he too was well held at fine leg after hitting 25 from 20 balls.

No-one realistically expected Josh Little and Craig Young to score the remaining 41 runs and it was Ferguson who had the final say when the Bready man nicked one through to the keeper; he tried to prolong the match by sending Roly Black’s decision to the TV umpire but the edge was confirmed.

“We always felt we were in the game,” said Balbirnie afterwards, “it’s just a shame the way we finished (losing the last three wickets for 11 runs).

But the positives were we bowled up top but they got away from us in the end and although we had relatively good partnerships in the middle, there was nothing substantial and we will have to work on that for the next game.”

Josh Little was, comfortably, the pick of the Irish bowlers, coming back to take two wickets in his second spell and his figures of four for 35 were his second best in his 60th international.

The left arm pace man also had the honour of being the first to dismiss Michael Bracewell on this tour after he had scored 211 runs in his first four innings but Phillips was the immovable batsman. He didn’t bring up his 50 until the fifth ball of the 19th over but he took a liking to Adair in that last over, hitting him for two fours and a six, although Mark didn’t help himself but bowling a full toss no-ball and a wide.

Andy McBrine was surprisingly left out after being the most accurate bowler in the runs fest which was the last one-day international between the teams on Friday, with Barry McCarthy brought in and George Dockrell and Gareth Delany sharing five overs of spin.

Dockrell hadn’t bowled a ball in a T20I since the South Africa series last summer and hadn’t taken a wicket since the West Indies tour in January 2020 but he broke that duck with the wicket of the dangerous Jimmy Neesham, one of three catches for wicket-keeper Lorcan Tucker.

The second match is back at Stormont tomorrow (4pm) but the international action continues today with Ireland Women facing Pakistan (4pm) in the third match of the Tri-Series in Bready.