Bangladesh clinch T20 series against World Champion England
When Taskin Ahmed hit two boundaries in consecutive balls and jumped in joy to the lap of non-striker Najmul Hossain the packed Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium Crowd erupted in ecstasy of making history.
Bangladesh made history by winning the first ever T20I series against World Champions England with a match in hand and Najmul once again emerged as hero with bat along with the all-round performance of Mehidy Hasan.
On Sunday, Najmul, who showed aggressive batting skill to help Bangladesh win the first match of the series, showed the acumen of scoring runs on a very difficult pitch and led the successful chase of a tricky 117-run total.
Najmul remained not out on 46 off 47 balls as Bangladesh reached home with eight balls and four wickets to spare.
Liton Das once again failed at the beginning as he got out for nine facing the same number of deliveries when he attempted a half hearted shot to be caught by Philip Salt off a Sam Curran delivery and Bangladesh became 16-1.
Liton’s opening partner Rony Talukder got out in the first ball of the sixth over for same number of runs when the score was 27 but it seemed Towhid Hridoy, who formed a match winning partnership in Chittagong with Najmul, would repeat the heroic of the match.
He looked set before getting out for 17 but Bangladesh looked to be in the driving seat as bowling hero Mehidy along with Najmul were cruising to the target.
But English fast bowler Jofra Archer made an opening by removing Mehidy, who scored 20 off just 16, and Moeen Ali dismissing skipper Shakib al Hasan for a three-ball duck to reduce Bangladesh to 100-5 in the 17th over.
Archer bowled Afif Hossain with his sheer pace in the next over and Bangladesh were in danger of losing the match but Najmul released the pressure scoring seven runs in the first three balls of the 19th over bowled by Sam Curran before Taskin’s finishing.
Archer was the pick of the English bowlers with a figure of 13-3.
Earlier, after losing the toss England batters did well reaching 50 losing just one wicket at the end of sixth over during the powerplay. But Bangladesh spinners, especially Mehediy Hasan did a splendid job of picking up regular wickets and restricting the visitors for under run-a-ball total once the field was spread.
Mehidy returned with 4-12, his best figure in T20I while Shakib al Hasan, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed and Hasan Mahmud got one wicket apiece.
Mehidy, who got some assist from the slow and low pitch of SBNS, maintained ideal length with a bit of turn that proved extremely difficult for the English batters.
Left-hander Moeen Ali was his first victim when the batter tried to slog and got caught at deep by substitute Shamim Patwary for 15 and leaving his side on 57-4 after the end of ninth over.
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.