India won the T20 World Cup on home soil in March, successfully defending the title they won in 2024 with a 96-run thrashing of New Zealand in the final, but they came spectacularly unstuck in Stormont in their first T20 match since.
After being put in to bat, Ireland recovered from 3-36 reach 9-182 off their 20 overs, captain Lorcan Tucker making 50, before bowling India out for 148 with seven balls to spare.
In response to Ireland's impressive effort with the bat, India's openers Sanju Samson and Abhishek Sharma plundered 16 off the opening over before Irish debutant Jai Moondra removed the former with his first ball.
Another Irish debutant, Matt Hollard, had Ishan Kishan caught by Tucker off his second delivery to leave India 2-45 in the fourth over.
Hollard's dream start to international cricket continued as George Dockrell's running catch to remove India captain Shreyas Iyer left the tourists on 3-60, and that became 4-80 when Sharma was caught on the boundary by Ben Calitz off Liam McCarthy, having reached 50.
India lost two more wickets - Tilak Varma (19) and Washington Sundar (nine) - before passing the 100-mark and when Shivam Dube was caught and bowled by Moondra following a quickfire 25, India were 7-135 with four overs remaining.
Axar Patel was dismissed five balls later with another fine boundary catch, this time by Tim Tector off Gareth Delany, leaving India with eight down for 137 in the 17th over and Ireland on the verge of a memorable win.
Needing 45 runs off the last 18 balls and then 36 from 12, India No.9 Harshit Rana was dropped in the deep before Calitz caught him next ball off Matthew Humphreys.
That left India, who had rested wonderkid Vaibhav Sooryavanshi, on 9-147 with 11 balls left and Ireland sealed a famous win when Arshdeep Singh holed out to Tim Tector off Humphreys four balls later.
The sides meet again for their second and final T20 match at the same Civil Service Cricket Club venue on Sunday.
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