Bangladesh rode on Mehidy Hasan Miraz's devastating spell and Najmul Shanto's sedate knock to bulldoze World Champion England by four wickets in the second T20I at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Sunday on Sunday (March 12). With this win Bangladesh whitewashed the three-match T20I series 2-0 with one match to spare. The victory became memorable for Bangladesh as it's their first T20I series win against England.
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Bowling first, Mehidy ripped through the English batting line up and bowled a brilliant spell of 12/4 to bundle out visitors for paltry 117. In reply, Najmul Hossain Shanto scored a sedate 46 off 47 to help Bangladesh chase down the total with seven balls to spare after a patchy start.
After losing the toss England batters did well as they were once 50/1 at the end of sixth over during the powerplay. But Bangladesh spinners, especially Mehediy did a splendid job of picking up regular wickets and restricting the visitors for under run-a-ball total once the field was set. Mehidy must thank wicket-keeper Liton Das for his next two wickets as the latter showed first glove work to the extra bounce that beat Sam Curran to complete the stumping and also got rid of Chris Woakes two balls later in similar manner. Mehidy got his last wicket in the final ball of his spell when Chris Jordan was caught at deep by Rony Talukdar. Ben Duckett, who held one side of the wicket for long, was the highest scorer for England with a run-a-ball 28 while opener Philip Salt scored 25 off 19.
In reply, Bangladesh found the going tougher than in the first match of the series, when they got ahead of the rate early to make light work of England's total. On this occasion, they were made to work on a slow surface that gripped for both seamers and spinners alike. The out-of-form Litton Das (9) pulled Curran to Salt at deep square leg and Rony Talukdar spliced Jofra Archer to midwicket for the fast bowler's hundredth international wicket as both openers fell in the powerplay, but Shanto (46*) – as in the first match of the series – led the chase for Bangladesh, first with Towhid Hridoy (17) and then with Mehidy, who came to the crease ahead of Shakib to retain a left-hand/right-hand combination.
Mehidy, palpably the player of the match, hit exclusively with the spin, chipping Adil Rashid over extra cover for six and then sweeping Moeen Ali over the rope to break the back of a run-chase that was for a period of time still in the balance. But he fell in similar fashion to Talukdar before Shakib chipped Moeen to long-off, before Archer cranked up the speed gun to almost 92mph to knock over Afif Hossain's stumps. But Chris Jordan, who hadn't bowled until the 19th over, which spoke to the imbalance of England's line-up, was smeared away for consecutive fours by Taskin Ahmed as his five balls disappeared for 15 runs, giving Bangladesh victory with seven balls to spare.
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