England fell in a 3-0 series defeat against Bangladesh in their Twenty20 series as a half-century by Litton Das and some tight bowling helped the hosts secure a 16-run win in the final match at Mirpur on Tuesday.
Chasing 159 to win thanks to a 57-ball 73 from Das and an unbeaten 47 from Najmul Hossain Shanto, England lost Phil Salt to a first-ball duck off debutant Tanvir Islam’s opening to Dawid Malan (53) and Jos Buttler (40) steadied the ship.
Malan then headed one past Das behind the wickets to become Mustafizur Rahman’s 100th victim on the 14th before Buttler ran out for the next ball attempting a risky single as the hosts turned up the pressure on England.
A great win for Bangladesh 💥
The Tigers have whitewashed the reigning men’s #T20World Cup Champions England 3-0 in the T20I series 🔥#BANvENG | 📝: https://t.co/muxyBFMbjA pic.twitter.com/pZfKZmXjoH
-ICC (@ICC) March 14, 2023
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moeen ali and Ben Duckett also perished attempting big shots against Taskin Ahmed and the visitors never quite recovered, going 142-6 from their 20 overs. It is only the third time that England have been shut out in a bilateral T20 series with at least two matches.
“We were very good in this series. I think we played exceptionally,” said Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan.
“That has been one of the big changes. If we look at the World Cup next year, we can build from here.”
Bangladesh had denied England a clean sweep in the previous three-match one-day international series by winning the final game, and produced some imposing displays against the world champions in the shorter format.
Having stunned England in the first two T20 matches, they got off to a solid start after being asked to bat by Buttler as Das and fellow opener Rony Talukdar (24) settled early on good wicket to score 46 on the power play. .
Talukdar did not make the most of being dropped by Rehan Ahmed in the 17th off Jofra Archer and was caught after a wrong reverse sweep off Adil Rashid. But his replacement, Shanto, reached the limit and further frustrated England.
Das was also given a reprieve, dropped by Duckett into Archer’s half after he made his ninth half-century, and went on to punish the England bowlers before finally bowling Salt into the deep.
Shanto narrowly missed his half century as England clamped down in the last overs with Rashid (1-23), Chris Jordan (1-21) and Sam Curran (0-28) leading the way.
“Really disappointed, but congratulations to Bangladesh. They deserved their win,” Buttler said.
“We came back well and missed some opportunities on the field, which is disappointing in this game. It was a good score to restrict them, but that didn’t happen.
“It’s really poor and I’m really disappointed in myself for not going out there, it cost us the game.”
