Bangladesh stifle England again to clinch series win

No one mastered a pitch that spun throughout, but the hosts came out on top in a low-scoring affair in Mirpur to send Bangladesh 2-0 up with a single game remaining on this tour

Nick Friend | 12/03/2023 at 12:17

Mirpur: England 117, Bangladesh 120-6 - Bangladesh win by four wickets

Bangladesh strangled England on a pitch that spun prodigiously as the home side took an unassailable lead in the three-match T20I series.

After the tourists lost the toss for a tenth match in a row on their winter travels, they were bowled out for just 117, which was too low a total even on a surface that made it difficult to score.

Ben Duckett top-scored with 28 for England, who are multiple batters light in their 13-man squad for this series, but otherwise only Phil Salt (25), Moeen Ali (15), Sam Curran (12) and Rehan Ahmed (11) made it into double figures.

Buttler rejigged his batting line-up in recognition of England's shortage of options; he dropped himself to No.4 and instead moved Dawid Malan up to the top of the order, but that ploy didn't pay off. Malan top-edged an attempted swing over the legside to third man for five, which meant England had lost the man who often anchors their T20I innings.

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^{England struggled once again (Munir Uz Zaman/AFP via Getty Images)}

Between Salt and Moeen, though, England moved to 50 for 1 by the end of the powerplay, but from then on they collapsed in a heap. There wasn't a six in the innings after the sixth over, and there were just five more boundaries of any type, two of which came from Rehan, who became England men's youngest T20I debutant.

Salt slapped a short ball from Shakib Al Hasan back to the Bangladesh captain, before Buttler was cleaned up by a Hasan Mahmud yorker. When Moeen slog-swept Mehidy Hasan Miraz to deep midwicket, England were had lost 3 for 7 and were 57 for 4 after nine overs.

Curran and Duckett led a gradual rebuild, but it had little momentum and both knew that those below them were all bowling allrounders. So, when Curran and Chris Woakes were stumped off Mehidy within two balls of one another, the house of cards had tumbled.

Mehidy ended with figures of 4 for 12 in four overs, a terrific return – his best in T20 cricket – that was sealed with the wicket of Chris Jordan off the final ball of a fine spell. The off-spinner loves playing against England: he began his Test career with a six-wicket haul on debut as a 19-year-old in Chattogram.

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^{Jofra Archer took his 100th international wicket (Munir Uz Zaman/AFP via Getty Images)}

In reply, Bangladesh found the going tougher than in the first match of the series, when they got ahead of the rate early to make light work of England's total. On this occasion, they were made to work on a slow surface that gripped for both seamers and spinners alike.

The out-of-form Litton Das (9) pulled Curran to Salt at deep square leg and Rony Talukdar spliced Jofra Archer to midwicket for the fast bowler's hundredth international wicket as both openers fell in the powerplay, but Najmul Shanto (46*) – as in the first match of the series – led the chase for Bangladesh, first with Towhid Hridoy (17) and then with Mehidy, who came to the crease ahead of Shakib to retain a left-hand/right-hand combination.

Mehidy, palpably the player of the match, hit exclusively with the spin, chipping Adil Rashid over extra cover for six and then sweeping Moeen Ali over the rope to break the back of a run-chase that was for a period of time still in the balance. But he fell in similar fashion to Talukdar before Shakib chipped Moeen to long-off, before Archer cranked up the speed gun to almost 92mph to knock over Afif Hossain's stumps.

But Chris Jordan, who hadn't bowled until the 19th over, which spoke to the imbalance of England's line-up, was smeared away for consecutive fours by Taskin Ahmed as his five balls disappeared for 15 runs, giving Bangladesh victory with seven balls to spare.