Harry Tector’s career-best 69 not out, back up by a superb bowling performance, spurred Ireland to a crushing 39-run victory over Bangladesh in Chattogram and a 1-0 lead in the best-of-three T20 international series.

Every Ireland batsman scored at a rapid pace and Tector shared valuable partnerships of 31, 34 and 44 with his brother Tim, Lorcan Tucker and Curtis Campher before striking successive sixes in the final over to lift the Boys in Green to 181-4.

Left-arm spinner Matthew Humphreys then came to the party with another career-best of 4-13, including three wickets in an extraordinary final over, and the victory margin would have been much wider but for the final two Bangladesh wickets adding 68.

Mark Adair, back in the side after injury, began his four overs with a wicket maiden but had to settle for figures of 2-20 after seeing a series of late chances dropped in the deep, while Barry McCarthy claimed the other three as the home side closed on 142-9.

“I was definitely happy with the way we finished our innings because I’d lost my momentum for a few overs. I didn’t find it easy to consistently time the ball,” Harry Tector said.

"It was one of those pitches where if you tried to over-hit and play in too high a gear you could lose your timings.”

Along with his seventh T20 half-century, which contained a four as well as five maximums, Tector will also be pleased that brother Tim grabbed his chance at the top of the order, with a lively 32 from 19 balls before holing out to long on.

The younger Tector was controversially omitted from the England series in September but with Ross Adair missing through injury he opened with skipper Paul Stirling and looked at home as they added 40 under the lights.

A couple of similar knocks in the two remaining games against Bangladesh may yet be enough to secure Tector the ‘spare batsman’ role at the World Cup in February.

His brother’s astute assessment of the Chattogram pitch was evident at the start of the Bangladesh innings as the home side slipped to 5-3 thanks to succession of poorly-timed attempts to hit over the top.

Bangladesh lost a fourth wicket in the powerplay then Josh Little took a stunning catch at deep third off McCarthy and the game was decided by Humphreys’ final over: a well-judged catch by Harry Tector just inside the boundary at long on, a plumb lbw complete with the 23-year-old’s trademark ‘celebr-appeal’ and a smart leg-side stumping by Tucker.

There was no way back from 74-8 and although Towhid Hridoy showed his fellow batsmen what was possible with a defiant 83 not out, Ireland had switched off and were no doubt already looking forward to tomorrow’s (SAT) second game at the same venue.