Andrew Balbirnie admitted the batting group has not been good enough as Ireland crashed to their first ever 10 wickets defeat in a one-day international, against Bangladesh in Sylhet.

After surprisingly deciding to bat first, Ireland were bowled out for 101 in just 28.1 overs, three overs less than they batted in the first game last Saturday, and their hosts knocked off the runs with almost 37 overs to spare to complete a clean sweep of the three-match series.

“We came here with hopes of playing good cricket and competing but we haven’t,” said Balbirnie at his post-match press conference. “When you come up against good attacks if you are not at your best you are going to be found out.

“And it’s shame because we have been playing well in this format, but that’s cricket, and we have to find a way to be better when they come to Chelmsford (for the three World Cup Super League games, with automatic qualification for the finals in India up for grabs).

“I decided to bat because we wanted to get a score on board, we knew we had to be pretty tight in the first 10 (overs) but the first hour was a disaster from a batting point of view and we were never going to get a big enough score.”

After Stephen Doheny was caught behind in the fifth over, Ireland lost the 'Big Three', Paul Stirling, Balbirnie and Harry Tector, in the space of eight balls before the end of the powerplay and Curtis Campher joined Lorcan Tucker with the scoreboard showing 26 for four.

Their partnership of 41 was the only highlight of the innings but after Tucker, who had hit three fours in an over, was leg before for 28, George Dockrell was bowled next ball and Andy McBrine and Mark Adair then followed in the space of three balls.

Matthew Humphreys brought up the 100 with his first runs in an international  - a memorable cover driven four – but Graham Hume, the fourth lbw victim of the innings, was out two overs later and Ireland’s total of 101 was their sixth lowest in an ODI.

Searching for an explanation, Balbirnie said: “They are obviously off the back of some good cricket against England, we are straight here from indoor cricket, and we didn’t adapt as quickly as we needed too. They have shown they are a good team and have played much better cricket.

“Curtis and Lorcan showed that if you give yourself a chance you get value for your shots but once we were four down and then Lorcan got out, it was very tricky,” added Balbirnie.

Ireland needed early wickets to have any chance of slowing down the Bangladesh openers but Graham Hume was hit for two fours in his first over and Mark Adair three in his second and when Tucker failed to prevent five wides after five ‘dot’ balls from Humphreys, the 50 was up in the seventh over.

Humphreys was given four overs to get more more experience of bowling in these conditions, under his belt and Balbirnie is backing the 20-year-old Lisburn bowler for an exciting future.

“He is a really impressive character, doesn’t shy away from anything with ball in hand,” said his captain. “This is as tough as it gets for a young spinner, in these conditions against top quality players of spin, but he will thrive and get better. He has a big future and hopefully we can develop him as best as we can.”

It doesn’t get any easier for Ireland as they move on to Chattogram on Friday for next week’s three-match T20 series, the first game is on Monday.