A scintillating 73 off 57 balls from Liton Das and a handy unbeaten 47 off 36 balls from the consistent Najmul Hossain Shanto took Bangladesh to 158-2 in their 20 overs in the third Twenty20 on Tuesday, in pursuit of their maiden 3-0 sweep over England.
Liton and Shanto added 84 runs 57 balls for the second wicket but after that partnership ended, Bangladesh innings lost its momentum.
England bowlers started sloppily but could take heart from the way they closed out the innings, conceding just 27 runs in the last six overs and keeping England in with a chance in the match.
Liton, who had an underwhelming series before the 3rd T20, hit 10 fours and a six in an entertaining innings while Shanto hit his third successive 40-plus knock in the series with the help of one four and a couple of sixes.
England were uncharacteristically sloppy on the field, leaking multiple boundaries owing to misfieldlings and also dropping two catches, one of Rony and the other of Liton and in both occasions pacer Jofra Archer was the unlucky bowler.
Rony, got dropped in the sixth over on 18, with Rehand Ahmed dropping a simple catch.
But the opener couldn’t make good use of his second life, getting dismissed on 24 off 22 balls after miscuing a reverse sweep and hitting straight back to the bowler Adil Rashid, which ended the opening partnership on 55 off 7.3 overs.
Liton got dropped on 51, this time Ben Duckett was the man at fault. Liton made England rue that dropped chance, hitting a boundary and a six in the same over.
England bowlers bounced back in the death overs, with Sam Curran and Chris Jordan conceding just five and three runs respectively in the 16th and 17th over.
The pressure of dot balls got the better of Liton, who tried to pull Jordan for a six but could only hit it straight to Phill Salt.
Shanto and skipper Shakib Al Hasan (four off six balls) then faced the remaining 18 balls in the innings but could only make 19 runs off them.
Earlier, England won the toss and opted to bowl first at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka.