William Porterfield’s offstump lay uprooted on the floor, wrecked by a ball from Mohammad Amir that swung too much, too late and too quickly. Half an hour into Ireland’s maiden Test innings, their captain trudged off with his country 5-3.

Shortly after the players returned from lunch, Niall O’Brien was pinned on the knee by an in-ducker from Mohammad Abbas. Not yet 50 balls in, Ireland were 7-4. To be at Malahide, on a day in which 109 ex-Irish internationals came to celebrate their momentous achievement in gaining Test status, felt like intruding upon private grief.

Stories of how onerous Test cricket is are more than just old fables. This is a format so exacting that it took New Zealand 44 matches before recording their first win, India 24 and, most recently, Bangladesh 34. Now, Ireland were finding out as much.

Ed Joyce had extended his magnificent career into his 40th year to finally earn a Test cap. He deserved better than for his first innings to be truncated after four balls by an lbw decision when the ball pitched outside legstump. The financial inequities in world cricket are such that Cricket Ireland could not afford the £35,000 the Decision Review System would have cost.