Bangladesh secured a three-match T20 series win against world champions England with one match in hand.
Bangladesh beat England by 4 wickets in the second T20 of the series on Sunday (March 12) with Mehdi Hasan Miraz’s excellent bowling and Najmul Hossain Shanto’s responsible batting.
The Tigers won the first match by 6 wickets. Shakib’s team took a 2-0 lead in the first bilateral T20 series against England.
After losing the toss and batting first, England were bowled out for 117 runs in 20 overs. Miraz took 4 wickets for 12 runs. In reply, Shanto’s impeccable 46 runs ensured Bangladesh’s victory with 7 balls remaining.
Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan won the toss and chose to bowl first at Mirpur Sher-E-Bangla National Cricket Stadium. Pacer Taskin Ahmed got Bangladesh a wicket in the third over of the innings. Hasan Mahmud caught at third man by opener David Malan for 5 runs.
After losing the first wicket for the team’s 16 runs, another opener, Phil Salt and Moeen Ali put up resistance in front of the Bangladesh bowlers. They gave the team 50 runs in the power play.
Shakib saw success when he attacked for the first time in the seventh over to break the pair of Salt-Moeen. Salt departed with a return catch to Shakib in the third delivery. He scored 25 runs off 19 balls with 3 fours and 1 six.
After the departure of Salt, England fell into great danger. Pacer Hasan Mahmud bowled England captain Josh Buttler in the last delivery after coming to the first ball in the eighth over. Buttler scored 4 runs at number five.
Like Shakib and Hasan, spinner Mehdi Hasan Miraz took the wicket in the ninth over when he came to bowl for the first time. Moeen departed by catching the twelfth fielder Shamim Hossain at mid-wicket while hitting a sweep six. Moeen scored 15 runs off 17 balls with 1 four-six before getting out.
England fell under great pressure after losing three wickets in three consecutive overs with a gap of 7 runs. Ben Duckett and Sam Curran added 34 runs off 32 balls for the fifth wicket to relieve the team of pressure.
In the 15th over, Miraz came on the attack for the third time and took 2 wickets. England lost the sixth wicket for 91 runs when Karan was stumped for 12 runs on the second ball and Chris Woakes was stumped for no on the fourth ball.
Duckett took the team’s score to 100 with Chris Jordan. In the 17th over, Mirage took the fourth wicket in the innings by dismissing Jordan for 3 runs. He bowled a career-best 4 overs and took 4 wickets for 12 runs.
In the end, after playing the entire 20 overs, England were bowled out for 117 runs. This is the English’s all-time run against Bangladesh. Pacer Mustafizur Rahman stopped Duckett for 28 runs. Debutants Rehan Ahmed 11 and Jofra Archer were run out empty-handed.
After Miraj, Taskin-Mustafiz-Sakib-Hasan took 1 wicket each for Bangladesh. Bangladesh lost their wicket in the third over with a target of 118 runs to secure the series win. Opener Liton Das stopped for 9 runs by pulling a short ball from Karan and catching Salt at deep square leg.
Like Liton, another opener Rony Talukdar was also dismissed for 9 runs. Bangladesh lost 2 wickets for 27 runs when Rony got out after Moeen was caught by Archer. The heroes of the previous match, Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Touhid Hriday, tried to form a pair to overcome the initial shock. They play carefully. Shanto-Hriday broke away after adding 29 runs off 31 balls with a pair of 3 fours.
Debutant spinner Rehan stopped Hridke for 17 runs in the third delivery of his first over. Hriday hit 2 fours off 18 balls. Shanto and Mirzj increased the pace of the team’s runs after the team got back to 56 runs.
They added 12 runs in the 14th and 15th overs. After the pair added 41 runs from 32 balls, Miraz was dismissed by Archer. The all-rounder who was selected as the man of the match scored 20 runs off 16 balls with 2 sixes.
Shakib could not play more than 3 balls when he came to the wicket. Shakib left empty-handed after catching Jordan at long-off off Moeen. Bangladesh was under pressure when Afif was bowled for 2 runs by Archer in the team’s 105 runs. In such a situation, the Tigers needed 13 runs from the last 13 balls with 4 wickets in hand to win the match.
Shanto and Taskin gave Bangladesh a taste of series victory by picking up 15 unbroken runs in 6 balls for the seventh wicket. Taskin secured the victory with 2 fours on the fourth and fifth balls of the 19th over by Jordan. Shanto scored an unbeaten 46 off 47 balls with 3 fours.
Taskin scored 8 runs off 3 balls. England’s Archer took 3 wickets for 13 runs. The third and last T20 of the series will be played in Mirpur on March 14.
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