Bangladesh 120 for 6 (Shanto 46*, Mehidy 20) beat England 117 (Duckett 28, Salt 25, Mehidy 4-12) by four wickets
The optimistic Bangladesh fan would have predicted exactly the opposite of what happened in this England tour. Shakib Al Hasan’s men won the T20I series, convincingly in the second game in Dhaka, after conceding the ODI series 1-2 last week. Bangladesh are usually at their best when they play ODI cricket, but who could tell after this tour?
England’s strong start slips into collapse
Mehidy sparks second England collapse
Sam Curran and Ben Duckett added 34 runs for the fifth wicket, before Mehidy’s triple-strike sent the visitors into free fall. Litton stumped Curran and Chris Woakes in the space of three balls. Both tricky deliveries but handled smoothly by the gloveman. As soon as England reached three-figures, Mehidy landed his maiden four-wicket haul when Chris Jordan hit one to deep midwicket. England slipped from 91 for 4 to 100 for 7 in 17 balls.
The remaining three wickets fell in the last over. Duckett, the only one who looked remotely close to giving England a good finish, was caught superbly by Shanto, before Rehan Ahmed and Jofra Archer were run out off the last two balls of the innings.
Bangladesh didn’t have the smoothest chase. Curran removed Litton for yet another soft dismissal, caught at deep square leg, the only deep fielder on the leg-side at the time. Rony Talukdar couldn’t quite get Archer away, falling for 9 in the sixth over. Legspinner Rehan then took his first T20I wicket, when Towhid Hridoy, playing his second T20I, toe-ended the ball to Woakes at point. It was a rank half-tracker from Rehan, but he’d nonetheless take the wicket.
Shanto held his own at the other end, adding 41 runs in 5.2 overs with Mehidy. But Bangladesh slipped again, this time losing Mehidy, Shakib and Afif Hossain in the space of two overs. Shakib threw away his wicket, while Archer blew away Afif’s off bail, which landed at fine leg. Shanto and Taskin scored the remaining 15 runs, with the former providing the calming influence in that final partnership.