In Short
- Bangladesh won the third T20I by 16 runs against England
- Bangladesh completed 3-0 T20I series sweep over England
- Dawid Malan’s valiant half-century went in vain in 3rd T20I
By India Today Sports DeskBangladesh, led by Shakib Al Hasan, completed a historic T20I 3-0 series sweep over the reigning T20 World Cup champions England with a nervy 16-run win in the third and final T20I in Dhaka on Tuesday.
England, chasing 159 to win thanks to Das’ 57-ball 73 and Najmul Hossain Shanto’s unbeaten 47, lost Phil Salt for a first-ball duck in debutant Tanvir Islam’s opening over before Dawid Malan (53) and Jos Buttler (41) steadied the ship.
In the 14th over, Malan top-edged one to Das behind the wickets to become Mustafizur Rahman’s 100th victim, before Buttler was run out next ball attempting a risky single as the hosts heaped pressure on England. Moeen Ali and Ben Duckett also perished while attempting big shots against Taskin Ahmed, and the visitors were never able to recover, finishing at 142-6 from their 20 overs.
Bangladesh had prevented England from completing a three-match one-day international series sweep by winning the final game, and they had produced some commanding performances against the world champions in the shortest format.
After shocking England in the first two T20 matches, they got off to a solid start when Buttler asked them to bat, with Das and fellow opener Rony Talukdar (24) settling in early on a good wicket to score 46 in the powerplay.
Talukdar was caught after a miscued reverse-sweep off Adil Rashid after being dropped on 17 by Rehan Ahmed off Jofra Archer. But his replacement, Shanto, came in and further frustrated England.
After being dropped by Duckett at deep midwicket off Archer after his ninth half-century, Das went on to punish England’s bowlers before holing out to Salt in the deep.
Shanto missed out on a half-century as England clamped down in the final overs, led by Rashid (1-23), Chris Jordan (1-21), and Sam Curran (0-28).
Johnnie King
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Rodrigo Wolf