World champions England Banglawashed as Tigers win third T20I by 16 runs
They hadn’t played a single bilateral T20I series in 17 years against the current white-ball champions England. And when they did, they whitewashed them, that too pretty comfortably.
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Tigers created history. They hadn't played a single bilateral T20I series in 17 years against the current white-ball champions England. And when they did, they whitewashed them, that too pretty comfortably. A new-look Bangladesh beat England in the third T20I by 16 runs to seal the series 3-0 and complete only their second whitewash over a Test-playing nation.
The match went to the final over with England needing 27 to win. The Tigers were sniffing victory. Hasan Mahmud's first two deliveries went for four to make the match interesting but Hasan Mahmud held his nerves. Bowled three tight deliveries which left England needing 17 off the last ball. And that went for a dot too. Bangladesh sealed a history-making victory over the world champions.
Bangladesh rode on the pacers to defend a decent 158.
Debutant Tanvir Islam kicked off his career with a wicket in his very first over sending Phil Salt back to the pavilion. Dawid Malan then was given LBW to Taskin Ahmed's shout in the next over, but he survived as DRS showed a spike on UltraEdge as the ball passed his bat.
After that, it was Malan and Jos Buttler. The duo hit at least one boundary in six straight overs. Malan struck an over boundary in Tanvir's next over while Taskin conceded two boundaries in his second. Shakib came into the attack and conceded 21 in his first two overs.
England reached 50 in the sixth over where Shakib gave away 13 runs including a six hit by Malan. Hasan Mahmud and Mustafizur Rahman then bowled two tight overs but England reached 72 for one after 10 overs.
But Bangladesh did fight back. After a few tight overs, Mustafiz struck in the first ball of the 14th over to send Malan back to the pavilion. It was the left-arm pacer's 100th T20I wicket as he became the only sixth bowler in international cricket to achieve the feat. In the next ball, Buttler was gone thanks to a brilliant direct hit by Mehidy Hasan Miraz from the point region.
England lost their two set batters and suddenly looked uncomfortable in the chase.
Moeen Ali and Ben Duckett tried to build a partnership but Taskin Ahmed hit back with two wickets in the 17th over when England needed 40 from 24 balls. First he sent Moeen back to the hut before destroying Duckett's stumps in the final ball of the over. And he conceded only four runs in the over.
Mustafiz, as he bowled brilliantly in the whole match, conceded only five in the 18th over leaving England needing 31 from last 12 balls. Mustafiz's bowling spell read 4-0-14-1.
Shakib gave only four runs in the penultimate over to all but secure the win for the Tigers and Hasan Mahmud held his nerves to eventually make it 3-0 for the hosts.
Earlier, Bangladesh batters failed to utilize the death overs after a blistering start to give England a 159-run target in the third T20I. It was the same old death batting by the Bangladeshi batters as they managed only 27 runs in the final five overs.
Bangladeshi openers - Litton Das and Rony Talukdar - made a solid start with the bat. The duo remained unbeaten at the end of the first powerplay scoring 46 runs.
Rony Talukdar got a huge life when Rehan Ahmed missed a sitter in the sixth over. But he couldn't last long after that.
Bangladesh brought up their 50 in the last ball of the seventh over.
Rony was the first man to go in a bizarre fashion as he was caught and bowled to Adil Rashid trying to play a suicidal reverse sweep. He bagged 24 off 22 deliveries hitting three boundaries.
The first six of the innings came in the 11th over of the innings. Shanto hit one in the long on area for the maximum.
Litton reached his 50 in 41 balls in the 13th over. Bangladesh also reached 100 in the same delivery Litton reached his ninth T20I half-century.
The Tigers were very much on their way to reaching 180. They were 131 for the loss of one wicket after 15 overs. Then came Sam Curran, Chris Jordan and Jofra Archer in three consecutive overs and they conceded only 13 runs in those overs. And Bangladesh lost the important wicket of Litton Das. Litton bagged 73 off 57 balls where he hit 10 boundaries and one maximum.
Shakib came in next but he couldn't do much. Shanto struck a few boundaries in the final two overs to eventually take the hosts to 158 for two. The final two overs saw Bangladesh scoring 14 runs without losing any wicket.
Shanto remained unbeaten on 47 off 35 balls.
For England, Jordan and Adil Rashid picked up a wicket each.