No T20 series was played between Bangladesh and England for 18 years and when the series took place for the first time, the world champions were defeated by Bangladesh.
Image Credit source: AFP
Mirpur: For almost 18 years, not a single series was played between England and Bangladesh in T20 cricket. Rather, for the first time the T20 match between the two teams also took place in the 2021 World Cup. Now that the wait is over, the result was shocking. Bangladesh defeated England, who became the T20 World Champion four months ago, in the first T20 series itself. After an easy win in the first match of the series two days ago, Bangladesh defeated England by 4 wickets in the second T20 as well and took a 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
Like the first match of the series played in Chittagong, once again the hosts Bangladesh had the advantage of bowling first. In the first T20, England had also scored 156 runs, but in the second T20, the English team, captained by Jos Buttler, failed miserably on the batting front this time and could score only 117 runs.
England in front of Mirage
Bangladesh’s pacers and spinners together kept a tight rein on England’s batting. Ben Duckett scored the maximum 28 runs (28 balls) for England, while opener Phil Salt scored 25 runs (19 balls). Spin all-rounder Mehdi Hasan Miraj played the biggest role in this fate of England.
Miraj, who was the hero of Bangladesh’s victory in the ODI series against India in December last year, hunted the world champion this time. Bangladeshi player gave only 12 runs in 4 overs and took 4 wickets.
Shanto again became a disaster for England
The beginning of Bangladesh was also not good and they had lost two wickets for just 27 runs. In such a situation, Najmul Hasan Shanto took the responsibility of handling Bangladesh. The left-handed batsman played a fighting innings of 46 runs (47 balls) in difficult conditions and stood firm till the end to give the team a 4-wicket win.
It was Shanto who made Bangladesh win by scoring 51 runs in 30 balls in the first match.
Not only Shanto, Miraj also made an important contribution with the bat. After doing wonders with the ball, Miraj played an innings of 20 runs in 16 balls and played a big role in reaching the victory with an important partnership of 41 runs with Shanto. Miraj was adjudged Player of the Match for this all-round performance.