England lose T20 series to Bangladesh after four-wicket loss
Bangladesh won their Twenty20 series with England yesterday with a four-wicket victory in the second match which gave them an unassailable 2-0 lead.
England posted a target of 118 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur in a low scoring affair that saw Ben Duckett’s 28 the highest English contribution.
Phil Salt and Dawid Malan opened the batting for Matthew Mott’s men but fell for 25 and five runs respectively while Moeen Ali (15), Jos Buttler (4), Sam Curran (12), Chris Woakes (0), Chris Jordan (3), Rehan Ahmed (11), Adil Rashid (1) and Jofra Archer (0) failed to make a significant impact.
The pick of the Bangladeshi bowlers was Mehedi Hasan, who took four wickets for 12 runs as England were bowled out for 117.
It looked as though England could be in with a shot as both of Bangladesh’s openers fell for nine runs each but Najmul Hossain Shanto’s 46 not out did a lot of the work for the hosts with Towhid Hridoy and Mehedi Hasan scoring a further 37 runs between them.
Archer continued his return to international cricket with his three wickets for 14 runs while Curran, Moeen and Ahmed – who became just the eighth player to play all three international formats of the game before turning 19 – took one wicket each.
Bangladesh came home comfortably with four wickets and seven balls to spare.
“It was a difficult game of cricket, but exciting as well. Credit to Bangladesh for outplaying us,” captain Buttler said.
“No batter ever wants to get out. It was a tough wicket to start your innings on. You needed someone to get in and bat through. Ben Duckett did that well, and we just needed someone to stick with him.
“It was an outstanding bowling performance. Everyone putting their hand up and creating pressure. We bowled without luck at times. Really proud of everyone’s efforts in the field.”
England will face Bangladesh in the third match tomorrow looking to salvage a result in the subcontinent before the side take an extended break from international cricket.
The Test team are back in action in early June against Ireland at Lord’s while the limited-overs side don’t play until the end of August, after the Ashes, when they face New Zealand.