Harry Tector continued his award-winning form from May into June with an undefeated 148 to give Ireland a comfortable five wickets victory in their first warm-up game in Bulawayo, ahead of the World Cup qualifying tournament.

Tector, the ICC Player of Month, hit 10 fours and seven sixes in his 122-ball innings as Ireland chased down the USA’s 312 for six with almost five overs to spare. Unfortunately for the seventh best batsman in the world, his top score remains the 140 he scored against Bangladesh last month as all warm-up games are uncapped.

Tector was actually outscored in a fourth wicket stand of 122 with Lorcan Tucker who will also go into next week’s qualifiers in superb form, after scoring 68 from 59 balls while Paul Stirling hit seven fours and a six in his 53-ball innings of 55 at the top of the order.

It wasn’t all good news in the batting department, with Andrew McBrine promoted to opener – presumably so that skipper Andrew Balbirnie could stay in his favoured number three position – but both failed to survive the first two overs, McBrine caught behind for four and the  captain caught at extra cover for two.

The bowlers will also be grateful for a second warm-up game, against Netherlands tomorrow, after conceding more than 300 to the seventh ranked of the 10 teams in the tournament.

Ben White was the only bowler to get through all 10 overs and he was the most successful  while both McBrine and George Dockrell each bowled eight. Barry McCarthy was the most used paceman,  with nine overs, against Josh Little’s seven and Graham Hume’s six, but Curtis Campher’s two overs went for 22.

PJ Moor, Gareth Delany and Mark Adair were all selected to only bat but were not required.

Scores: United States 312-6 (50 overs, A Jones 89, M Patel 77, S Mukkamalla 44 not out, S Modeni 42; B White 2-56, G Hume 1-26, J Little 1-33, A McBrine 1-49, B McCarthy 1-69) Ireland 313-5 (45.1 overs, H Tector 148 not out, L Tucker 68, P Stirling 55, C Campher 21). Ireland won by 5 wickets.