Bangladesh have pulled off the unthinkable. The Shakib Al Hasan-led side achieved a feat which only George Bailey-led Australia managed to do in the history of T20I cricket. With a 16-run win in the third T20I at Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka on March 14, Bangladesh became the second team to cleansweep England in a T20I series with three or more T20Is.
Big partnership, two quick wickets
Chasing 159, England lost opener Philip Salt for a golden duck as he got stumped off Tanvir Islam's bowling. The partnership between Dawid Malan and skipper Jos Buttler kept England in the hunt. Mustafizur Rahman broke the partnership in the 14th over. Malan went for the pull but mistimed and got caught by Litton Das. He scored 53 runs from 47 deliveries including six fours and two sixes. On the next ball, England suffered a massive blow as Mehidy Hasan Miraz's direct hit caught Buttler short of the crease. Buttler scored 40 off 31 deliveries including four fours and one six.
Dull finish
After two quick wickets, England were 100/3 with plenty batting left. New to the crease, both Ben Duckett and Moeen Ali became victim to Taskin Ahmed. The Bangladesh pacer struck twice in the 17th over. England needed 36 off the last three overs. Mustafizur bowled a brilliant over to finish his quota of four overs. In the last two overs, England needed 31 to win. Shakib bowled the penultimate over and got Sam Curran (4) out first ball. After Shakib's brilliant over, England needed 27 off the last six balls which turned out to be too tough for Chris Woakes to pull off alone. Bangladesh won by 16 runs to complete cleansweep against reigning T20 champions.
Das, Shanto's sensible knocks
Earlier, Buttler won the toss and elected to field first. Bangladesh got off to a good start with 46 runs in the powerplay overs. Also, Rehan Ahmed dropped a sitter to give Rony Talukdar a second life. However, Talukdar could not capitalise and got caught and bowled by Adil Rashid in the eighth over after scoring 24 runs off 22 deliveries.
Najmul Hossain Shanto attacked in the middle overs. Meanwhile, Das got to his half-century from 41 deliveries. In the 14th over, Duckett dropped Das' catch off Jofra Archer's bowling. The partnership was broken by Chris Jordan in the 17th over. Lack of pace surprised Das as he found the deep mid-wicket fielder Salt. The opener scored 73 runs from 57 deliveries including 10 fours and one six. In the last three overs, just one boundary was conceded by English pacers as they restricted hosts for 158/2. Shanto scored 47 runs from 36 deliveries including one four and two sixes.
Cost of too much experimenting
Too much experimenting hurt England. It started with the dead rubber third ODI where Bangladesh won by 50 runs. In the first T20I, Bangladesh won by six wickets with two overs to spare. In the third T20I, England suffered a batting collapse and hosts won the game by four wickets with seven balls to spare. Buttler revealed that he was giving chance to batters to bat higher up the order which they would not get normally. It backfired as England could not win a single game in the T20I series.
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