Liton Das smashed a Twenty20 career-best 73 as Bangladesh stunned world champions England to sweep the series 3-0 and score a massive upset in front of an ecstatic home crowd.
In a major humiliation for England’s usually clinical white ball unit ahead of the ODI World Cup in India later this year, Bangladesh won the third and final T20I in Dhaka by 16 runs. Bangladesh already won the first game by 6 wickets and the second by 4 wickets to give the home side their first series victory over England in any format.
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Set 159 runs target to win after winning the toss and opting to bowl first, England managed only 142 runs for the loss of 6 wickets despite Dawid Malan making 53 and skipper Jos Buttler 40 as Taskin Ahmed took two wickets for 26 runs. Opener Liton gave Bangladesh a good start, putting on 55 runs with Rony Talukdar for the opening stand.
England’s first breakthrough came when Adil Rashid took Rony for 24, but Najmul Hossain and Liton added 84 runs for the second wicket to keep up the momentum. England missed a chance to remove Liton soon after the right-hander completed his ninth T20I fifty when Ben Duckett dropped him on 51 at deep mid-wicket off Jofra Archer. Chris Jordan ended Liton’s 57-ball innings, forcing him to give a catch to Phil Salt at deep midwicket.
England bowling
England did well to contain the Bangladeshi batters after Liton’s dismissal, with just one boundary struck in the death overs. But Najmul, who survived on 40 scores after being given lbw off Jordan, ensured Bangladesh still had a fighting score with his third 40-plus innings in the series. Rashid and Jordan finished with 1-23 and 1-21 for England, respectively. In reply, England started poorly as debutant Tanvir Islam dismissed Phil Salt for a duck in the first over.
But Malan survived on review after being given out leg-before for six, and Buttler put England back in control with a second-wicket partnership of 95. Pacer Mustafizur Rahman added the first twist in the match by dismissing Malan, which was his 100th T20I wicket. Buttler was soon run out for 40 runs with a direct hit from Mehidy Hasan that allowed Bangladesh firmly back into the game.
Taskin returned to dismiss Moeen Ali (nine) and Ben Duckett (11) before Shakib Al Hasan got rid of Sam Curran (four) to complete the rout. “It is disappointing,” Buttler said afterward. “I thought it was a decent score to restrict them to. England won the preceding three-match one-day international series 2-1.
