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England succumbed to a T20 series defeat – and a third straight loss on their white-ball tour of Bangladesh – as they were beaten by four wickets in the second T20 international in Mirpur.
On a hugely challenging pitch for batting, England were bowled out for 117 with the final ball of their 20-over innings, and though Bangladesh didn’t have things all go their way in the run-chase, the hosts ultimately got home with seven balls to spare.
Mehidy Hasan was rightly named Player of the Match, the off-spinner taking 4-12 with the ball and following that up with an important cameo of 20 off 16 balls in the key stand of 41 with Najmul Hossain Shanto (46no off 47), who followed up his fine fifty in the series-opening win with another crucial innings.
Prior to their partnership, 18-year-old leg-spinner Rehan Ahmed (1-11) claimed a debut wicket with just his second ball in T20I cricket, with Towhid Hridoy (17) out slapping a bit of a drag down, in truth, straight to point.
It left Bangladesh teetering at 56-3 in the 11th over after earlier strikes by Sam Curran (1-15) and Jofra Archer (3-13) to remove both openers, Litton Das and Rony Talukdar, for nine.
Archer returned to remove Mehidy and Afif Hossain (2) – the latter’s stumps sent flying by a superb 90mph yorker – and, sandwiched between those strikes, Moeen Ali (1-25) accounted for captain Shakib Al Hasan for a duck to have Bangladesh wobbling once more at 105-6 heading into the final two overs.
But, Chris Jordan had the unenviable task of having the ball thrown to him for his first over of the game at the most critical of moments and the well-set Shanto and Taskin Ahmed (8no off 3) took him apart for 15 from his first five balls to clinch a series victory with one game still to play.
Earlier, having lost the toss for a fifth time in five on the tour, Jos Buttler’s side were put into bat – though the skipper didn’t open as usual, with Dawid Malan instead pushed up to the top of the order along with Phil Salt.
The experiment didn’t pay off. Malan (5) departed in the third over, a leading edge off Taskin (1-27) finding Hasan Mahmud on the third-man boundary.
Salt (25 off 19) played a few nice shots to see the tourists well-placed at 50-1 after the six-over powerplay but his wicket, caught and bowled by Shakib (1-13), triggered a run of three for seven in the next three overs as England collapsed to 57-4.
Buttler (4), ultimately batting at No 4, was clean-bowled by a beauty from Hasan Mahmud (1-10), while Moeen (15) picked out the man on the deep square boundary when sweeping Mehidy.
Ben Duckett (28) and Curran (12) attempted to rebuild the innings but any time England tried to up the scoring rate, their lower order perished, with Mehidy picking up three more scalps in a superb four-over spell.
The tourists’ total of 117 was never likely to be enough and, though there were moments of encouragement with the ball, so it proved as Shanto superbly anchored Bangladesh’s chase.
What’s next?
The three-match T20I series wraps up with the final game in Mirpur on Tuesday. Live coverage starts from 8.30am on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event, with play getting under way from 9am.
Watch England’s three-match ODI tour of Bangladesh live on Sky Sports and stream on NOW TV.
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