England slump to defeat as Bangladesh clinch 3-0 sweep in T20 international series

England suffered a late-innings batting collapse as Bangladesh clinched a 3-0 T20 international series sweep with a 16-run victory in Mirpur.

England’s batting had stuttered as they lost the first two matches by six and four wickets respectively and they faltered again on Tuesday chasing 159, slipping from 100-1 after 13 overs to 123-5 after 17 and finishing on 142-6 once a 95-run stand between Dawid Malan (53) and Jos Buttler (40) for the second wicket came to an end.

Malan, who overturned an lbw dismissal on six before being dropped on 42, and skipper Buttler departed from successive balls in a two-run 14th over – Malan caught behind, Buttler run out – before Moeen Ali (9), Ben Duckett (11) and Sam Curran (4) came and went.

England required 27 from the final over and gave themselves a glimmer of hope when Chris Woakes (13no) smoked Hasan Mahmud for successive fours, but the tourists managed just two byes and two dots after that as Bangladesh celebrated a whitewash against the reigning T20 world champions.

England were sloppy in the field as Bangladesh reached 131-1 from 15 overs after being inserted, with the litany of errors including dreadful dropped catches from Rehan Ahmed and Duckett.

Duckett shelled Bangladesh top-scorer Litton Das (73 off 57) at deep midwicket after Ahmed had grassed Das’ opening partner Rony Talukdar (24) on 17 at short third, with Jofra Archer the unfortunate bowler on both occasions as he went wicketless.

The tourists limited the Tigers to only 27 runs from the final five overs as Archer (0-33), Curran (0-28) and Chris Jordan (1-21) bowled superbly and with variety – but Bangladesh’s attack were then equally impressive at the death later on.

England are not in white-ball action again until August 30, when they begin a four-match T20 international series at home to New Zealand, with four ODIs against the Black Caps and then three ODIs versus Ireland to follow ahead of their 50-over World Cup title defence in India in October and November.

Bangladesh sweep England as tourists’ middle order stumbles

England’s chase got off to an inauspicious start with Phil Salt (0) stumped off debuting Bangladesh spinner Tanvir Islam in the first over and they were perhaps fortunate not to be 8-2 in the second.

Malan was given out lbw to Taskin Ahmed but overturned the decision on review with the TV umpire deciding bat was involved – despite the spike on UltraEdge seeming to have come after the ball passed the left-hander’s inside edge.

England were clear favourites with nine wickets in hand and 59 required from the final seven overs, only for Malan to top-edge a pull off Mustafizur Rahman behind and Buttler to be run out as Mehidy Hasan Miraz shot down the stumps from point.

Moeen holed out in the deep off Taskin three overs later before the same bowler splattered Duckett’s stumps and Curran – once again coming in potentially a spot too high at No 6 – sliced Shakib Al Hasan to point amid a collapse of 5-28.

Litton and Rony put on 55 for Bangladesh’s first wicket in the series finale after being aided by a number of England mis-fields but their stand was snapped in the eighth over when Rony ballooned back to Adil Rashid (1-23) on the reverse sweep.

The hosts continued to dominate, though, as Litton and Najmul Hossain Shanto (47no off 36) plundered 84 from just 58 balls, during which time Shanto smeared sixes off Rashid’s fellow spinners Ahmed and Moeen, and Litton mowed a maximum off Archer five balls after being dropped.

The last of Das’ 11 boundaries came in the 15th over – an exquisite four off Rashid inside-out over extra-cover – and he then holed out off Jordan in the 17th as England’s seamers put the squeeze on and Shanto and Shakib (4no) struggled to score.

Archer featured in back-to-back games, a sign that his fitness is in good shape as he aims to play a big part in England’s bid to regain The Ashes from Australia in June and July and then retain the 50-over World Cup in the autumn.