Bangladesh saw the other side of the coin of their overtly aggressive approach in batting as they got bundled out for a meager 124 off 19.2 overs against Ireland in the third and final Twenty20 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Friday.
The pitch didn’t have any such demons other than a little turn on offer for the spinners. But it was the Bangladesh batters penchant to keep hitting boundaries no matter the situation that backfired for the Tigers after the same approach yielded them back to back 200-plus totals in the previous two games.
Shamim Hossain was the best batter on display as his fighting 51 off 42 balls took Bangladesh over the 100-run-mark and in with a hint of a chance to defend this lowly total.
For Ireland, seven bowlers made it into the wicket-takers column with Mark Adair topping the chart with three wickets.
Batting first, the innings started off on the right foot for Bangladesh, with Liton Das and Rony Talukdar getting off the mark with fours in the first over.
But the partnership which made 124 in the previous match, ended for nine in the second over when Liton slashed an innocuous looking ball from Adair straight to George Dockrell at deep point.
A procession of soft dismissals then followed as Rony (14 off 10 balls), Najmul Hossain Shanto (four off eight) and Shakib Al Hasan (six off six) gifted their wickets to the tourists as Bangladesh were teetering at 41-4 after powerplay.
Bangladesh could’ve played more cautiously after the powerplay overs, given the fact they are playing with only six specialist batters, but that wasn’t the case.
Towhid Hridoy (12 off 10) tried to hit Ben White for a six in the seventh over, but mistimed the shot badly and ended up giving a simple catch to Harry Tector.
Debutant Rishad Hossain then gave Shamim some support for a while, as they added 20 runs for the seventh wicket, before the right hander lost his poles while attempting a slog sweep against Humphreys, departing for eight off seven balls.
Taskin Ahmed departed the same over for a duck trying to hit a six over cow corner.
Shamim and Nasum then formed the biggest partnership of the match, 33 runs off 34 balls.
After Nasum got caught off 13 off 17 balls, Shamim played a few expansive shots to complete his maiden half-century in T20 internationals, with the help of five fours and two sixes and pushed Bangladesh’s score over 100.
Shamim was the last batter to depart, when his pull shot against Fionn Hand went straight to Dockrell at backward square leg.
Bangladesh already have the three-match series in the bag after winning the first two T20s.