Only 117 runs on the scoreboard. It is a bit difficult to expect to win even with this run in T20 cricket. But when the game is in the spin heaven of Mirpur Sher-e-Bangla Stadium, it is possible to fight even with this run. And the fight for England was to save the series, Bangladesh's run chase was not going to be easy. The English bowlers did not let that happen.
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| England VS Bangladesh T20 |
Bangladesh needed to burn a lot of wood to beat England by 117 runs in the second T20 of the series today in Mirpur. The game was called in the 19th over. There was a lot of tension in it. Bangladesh eventually won by six wickets with seven balls remaining in the innings.
With this four-wicket victory, Bangladesh clinched the T20 series against world champion England in both formats of the white ball. Bangladesh has won the first two matches in the three-match series, and the last match is now a struggle for England to prevent a washout.
Bangladesh has won the T20 series at home against big teams before. However, Shakiba will definitely remember the defeat of the Butlers who won the T20 World Cup last November in the series after that World Cup.
However, the start of the run chase was not good for Bangladesh. The aggressive start was not seen as in the previous match. Chasing 117 runs, Liton Das and Rony Talukder have chosen the path of slow batting. But Lytton, who was in a run drought throughout the England series, missed another chance today by playing a wrong shot. The opener was caught by the lone fielder at deep mid-wicket off Sam Curren in the third over of the easy run chase.
Another opener Ronnie could not keep up with the pace. Ronnie took a catch at short mid-wicket in the last over of Jofra Archer's powerplay. Only 7 runs came from Ronnie's bat in 1 four after playing 14 balls. However, Nazmul Hossain and Touhid Hriday, who did well in the previous match, handled the initial shock. The two added 29 runs off 31 balls. However, the anointed Rehan Ahmed did not allow the pair of the two to be long. Hriday caught at point with his big turn mixed leg spin. He scored 17 runs off 18 balls before getting out.
Rehan and Adil Rashid still have 6 overs left. Also add 2 more overs of Jofra Archer. Nazmul and Mehdi Hasan Miraj played well to handle it. Luck was also on his side. Some balls turned to the side of the stumps, some top edged into the gap. In between, Nazmul and Miraj played some brave shots. These two batsmen were not under the pressure of chasing runs. The two added 41 runs off 32 balls. Mirage was caught at short mid-wicket by Archer and scored 20 runs off 16 balls.
Shakib also could not finish the match. He was caught out by Moeen Ali for no runs. However, Nazmul traveled the rest of the way with Taskin Ahmed. Nazmul was unbeaten on 46 runs off 47 balls. There were 3 fours in Nazmul's innings. Taskin was unbeaten on 8 runs with 2 fours from 3 balls.
However, the bowlers are making the work of the batsmen easier. After the first match, the team management felt the lack of a specialist off-spinner as England had four left-handed batsmen in the batting order. From that thought, Mehdi Hasan Miraj was given a chance by sitting Shamim Hossain in the second match of the series today. That Mirage is the English batting collapsing career-best bowling today. He took 4 wickets with just 12 runs in 4 overs and England were bowled out for 117 runs.
However, the pacers have set the stage. The English top order fell in the face of Taskin Ahmed's cannon with the new ball when he came to bat at the invitation of Bangladesh. In the third over of the innings, David Malan was caught by Hasan Mahmud at third man while cutting Taskin's bouncer. Later, however, England played the powerplay well. Phil Salt and Moeen Ali scored 50 runs in the first 6 overs.
But after the Powerplay, there was a crack in England's batting line-up. In the seventh over of the innings, Shakib Al Hasan dismissed Salt on his first bowling. Shakib made a fool of the English opener by reducing the speed and dismissed him in a huge turn. However, the English suffered a big blow in the dismissal of captain Jos Buttler. Buttler was dismissed by Hasan Mahmud in the first match.
Even today, Shakib gave the ball to Hasan before Buttler came to the crease. And Hasan took 4 balls to dismiss the English captain. After three length balls, Hasan uprooted Buttler's stumps with a spiked yorker off the fourth ball.
Next is the story of Miraj. He put England's left-handed batsmen under pressure by taking advantage of turn and bounce. Later, they took 4 wickets each.
Moeen began by settling for 15 runs off 17 balls. Sam Curran, Chris Woakes, and Chris Jordan all fell into Mirage's trap one by one. Under pressure, England also played sloppy cricket. After making mistakes, the last three batsman were all run out.
Shakib's captaincy might be a major factor in this. He bowled 20 overs today with 8 bowlers. Nasum Ahmed, the regular bowler, bowled only one over. Hasan was not bowled again after bowling successfully in the first two overs. Shakib may not have bowled these two bowlers since their greater pace on a sluggish pitch may have resulted in extra runs. Yet whatever he did was effective. Bangladesh has also been given the best opportunity to overcome England.