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Litton Das, Bowlers Help Bangladesh Claim Series Whitewash Against England

image-lf892p1xTaskin Ahmed (Source: AP Newsroom)

In the third and final T20I of the series, Bangladesh played an outstanding brand of cricket to stop the English side from chasing 159 after Litton Das returned to form striking a hard-fought 73.

Litton Das show at Dhaka gives Bangladesh a strong total

Being asked to bat first after winning the first two games of the series, Bangladeshi openers Litton Das and Rony Talukdar provided a solid start to the side against the quality England bowlers. Both of them batted with grit as they gathered 46 runs in the powerplay, finding occasional boundaries and during the entire phase, there was just one dropped chance of Talukdar as he was put down by Rehan Ahmed at third man.

However, he couldn't really make use of the chance as the 32-year-old lost his wicket in the eighth over when he played it back to Adil Rashid when the score was 55. Incoming batter, Najmul Hossain Shanto ensured to keep up with the rate supporting his partner well.

They both stitched an 84-run stand for the second wicket which did put the visiting side under a lot of pressure as they couldn't really trouble the batters. Das played exceptionally well as he notched up his half-century in the 13th over and continued to play until his score reached 73 where he lost his wicket to Chris Jordan with just three overs remaining.

His marvellous innings consisted of 10 fours and six as the team's score by the end of his departure was 139. Moreover, Shanto played a fine hand too with 36-ball 47 not out to help the finish on 158 with just two wickets down.

Rashid was brilliant with the ball as he bagged figures of 1/23 in his four overs where his economy stood at just 5.8.


Bangladesh fights back in the final overs

Chasing 159 for victory in a dead rubber, English openers Dawid Malan and Phil Salt came out with the right intentions, however, the latter lost his wicket in the very first over to Tanvir Islam.

Again under pressure, skipper Jos Buttler entered the arena and took responsibility along with Malan to rescue the side. They were aggressive in their approach hitting regular boundaries in the powerplay. Even after the first six overs, they continued to pile on the runs as they eventually brought up the side's 100 in 13 overs.

However, the game changed all of a sudden when Malan who scored 53 lost his wicket at the beginning of the 14th over to Mustafizur and what followed was another major blow as the captain got run out on 40 courtesy of a direct hit from Mehidy Hasan Miraz on the very next delivery.

Trouble started to creep in when the Three Lions lost wickets in quick succession as they went from 100 for no loss to 128 for 6 in no time with collapse ending all their chances.

With 27 required off the final over, all hopes diminished as they could only manage 10 as Bangladesh won by 16 runs and thus, claiming a series whitewash. Taskin Ahmed was pick of the bowlers with 2 wickets for 26 runs along with Mustafizur Rahman who bowled a wonderful spell of 1 for 14 while also claiming his 100th T20I wicket in this game.

Brief Score:

Bangladesh: 158-2 (20 Overs)

Litton Das 73 (57), Najmul Hossain Shanto 47* (36);
Chris Jordan 1/21 (3), Adil Rashid 1/23 (4)

England: 142-6 (20 Overs)

Dawid Malan 53 (47), Jos Buttler 40 (31);
Taskin Ahmed 2/26 (4), Mustafizur Rahman 1/14 (4)

Match Result: Bangladesh won by 16 runs