In their final white-ball game of the tour, acting captain Paul Stirling’s prayer was answered. Ireland took early wickets.

The result was a first ever win in Bangladesh after they bowled out their hosts for 124 and with Paul Stirling at his ‘world-class’ best, Ireland knocked off the runs with seven wickets and six overs to spare – a huge margin in the shortest format.

Stirling received the man of the match cheque for his 77 from 41 balls but Mark Adair, who took three for 25, was named Most Valuable Player by the other sponsor and the CIYMS all-rounder summed up the mood in the camp after their much-needed win.

“We will enjoy the win but we didn’t do anything different today or try harder,” he said.”T20 cricket is so up and down, it’s about creating and taking chances and if you can miss the middle of the bat, great. For example, Litton Das hit one straight to deep point today, the same ball in the first two games went for six.

“We just want to continue to show our togetherness and fight and potentially that was at the forefront today but that was because we have the confidence to back each other up and when it gets hard we are still in the right place.”

Having been hit by Das for 23 runs from eight deliveries on Wednesday, Adair got his man first ball yesterday, the first of four wickets in the powerplay – something Ireland hadn’t done in their last 33 T20Is. There was an even bigger celebration when he followed up with the wicket of Bangladesh captain Shakib Al-Hasan, caught at mid-wicket, in his next over.

“I was due a celebration, when you haven’t taken a wicket in a while. But it’s also nice to see the young guys come in. Humph (Matthew Humphreys) on his debut made a difference and Whitey (Ben White) has been excellent throughout the series, so it’s great to celebrate that success,” said Adair.

Humphreys, the Lisburn slow left armer, became the first Ireland bowler to take a wicket with his first ball in a T20I – he also took one with his third – and indeed of the seven bowlers used, FIonn Hand was the only one not to take a wicket in his first over as Stirling showed off his captaincy skills as well.

But it is his batting which will be remembered from this match as he compiled his highest T20 score since his century against Zimbabwe at Bready in 2021.  He greeted Shakib with back to back fours and never looked back.

His first ball from Hasan Ahmed cleared the long-on boundary for the first of his four sixes and whatever he had in his mid-interval drink, Shoriful Islam was on the receiving end with the next four balls going 6 4 4 4.

As Adair, his Northern Knights captain said afterwards: “Stirlo is world class, has been for the last 10 years and will continue to be.”

He was out just 16 runs short of the winning post but in-form Curtis Campher finished the job in style with another maximum off Bangladesh’s best bowler, Taskin Ahmed.

The Test match, starting in Dhaka on Tuesday, without Stirling, who has been ‘rested’ may be a different matter but last night Ireland could finally say they have won in Bangladesh.