Bangladesh v England: Tigers ease to T20 series victory
- Published
Bangladesh complete a series victory with one match to play
2nd T20, Bangladesh v England: Mirpur |
|---|
England 117 (20 overs): Duckett 28 (28); Mehedi 4-12 |
Bangladesh 120-6 (18.5 overs): Shanto 46* (47); Archer 3-13 |
Bangladesh won by four wickets |
Bangladesh clinched series victory with a four-wicket win over England in the second T20 international in Mirpur.
England were 50-1 after six overs, but a flurry of wickets followed on a difficult, turning pitch and the tourists were bowled out for 117 in the 20th over.
Ben Duckett top-scored with 28 from as many balls in the middle order, but he saw four partners fall to Mehedi Hasan who finished with figures of 4-12.
Bangladesh made steady progress in their chase, with Najmul Hossain Shanto's unbeaten 46 seeing them home with seven balls left.
Jofra Archer took two wickets late on, finishing with an impressive 3-13, to squeeze the game but the hosts took 15 from the first five balls of the penultimate over bowled by Chris Jordan.
The series concludes with a final dead rubber at the same ground on Tuesday.
England struggle with the bat
Playing in their first series in this format since winning the T20 World Cup in November, England were already handling the absences of a number of key batters, including Ben Stokes, Alex Hales and Will Jacks.
After defeat in Thursday's opening match of the series, captain Jos Buttler chose to make further changes to the winning formula, dropping himself to four and promoting Dawid Malan to open, while also offering a debut to 18-year-old prodigy Rehan Ahmed.
The move did not pay off, as Malan fell cheaply to Taskin Ahmed while Buttler was bowled by Hasan Mahmud's yorker for just four, as England were reduced to 57-4 after nine overs.
In successive matches Duckett has offered some resistance as others fell around him, but failed to kick on after reaching his 20s.
He and Sam Curran offered a largely boundary-less rebuild in the middle overs with a partnership of 34, handling a difficult pitch and some excellent bowling from Mehedi, who claimed Curran as one of two stumping victims.
England again seemed a batter light, with Chris Woakes coming in at seven, and lost three wickets in the final over as Archer and debutant Ahmed suffered embarrassing run outs.
Impressive Shanto sees Tigers home
England were probably around 20 runs short with the bat.
After the first seven overs there was excessive turn across the remainder of the match, which meant Bangladesh were never able to break the shackles in pursuit.
England will take solace from the bowling of Archer, who continues a successful return to the side after a lengthy period on the sidelines and was recorded at speeds of 93mph.
Having taken the wicket of opener Rony Talukdar, Archer returned to force Mehedi into a mistimed pull on 20 before splaying the stumps of Afif Hossain in the 18th over to offer England a glimpse of victory.
Thirteen runs were needed from 12 balls and Buttler turned to seamer Chris Jordan for the first time.
Shanto, who came in at three and anchored the innings, hit his first delivery for four, before Taskin struck the veteran seamer for successive boundaries to secure a comfortable victory.