England won the toss and chose to bat, but only added two runs before losing Ravi Bopara for a duck in the third over.

Luke Wright then came in and picked up the baton dropped by Denly, making a quick-fire 36 runs off 26 deliveries before becoming Trent Johnston's fourth wicket of the innings.

A prolonged spell of rain during the interval meant that play did not resume until 17:30, and Ireland's innings had to be reduced to 20 overs, with a revised target of 116 runs.

Tim Bresnan struck first for England, removing Ireland captain William Porterfield and wicket-keeper Niall O'Brien with almost identical dismissals, both batsmen cutting to Paul Collingwood at point.

The next two wickets fell to spin as Graeme Swann trapped Andre Botha LBW for 15 before Adil Rashid caught-and-bowled Ireland's top scorer, Paul Stirling, for 30 runs.