DHAKA, Bangladesh, 12 Mar: Bangladesh wrapped up the three-match T20 series against England with a game to spare as Mehidy Hasan claimed a career-best 4-12 and added a crucial 20-run knock to secure a four-wicket victory over the tourists on Sunday.
\nBangladesh held England to a lowly 117 in 20 overs, before knocking off the target with seven balls to spare, reaching 120-6.
\nNajmul Hossain, who was instrumental in the six-wicket victory in the first match with a 30-ball 51, was not out on 46, helping the home side stay in the contest despite England bowlers making inroads at regular intervals.
\n\u201cI was just trying to bowl in the right areas. I tried to rotate the strike and if there is a bad ball then put it away,\u201d said Mehidy, who replaced Shamim Hossain for the only change for Bangladesh.
\nFast bowler Jofra Archer gave England a flicker of hope, claiming 3-13 but Najmul held his nerve.
\nBangladesh lost both openers \u2014 Liton Das and Rony Talukdar \u2014 while chasing the moderate target for just 27 runs.
\nLater, Najmul held one end with confidence but the chase didn\u2019t get going in earnest until Mehidy struck two sixes as part of his 16- ball 20.
\nArcher removed him with a slower delivery and then delivered a ball that clocked 92 mph to rattle the stump of Afif Hossain.
\nIn between, Moeen Ali claimed the wicket of skipper Shakib Al Hasan as Bangladesh was left at 100-6 in the 18th over.
\nEngland appeared to be on course to save the game, sensing an unlikely victory, but Najmul and Taskin Ahmed hit three boundaries off Chris Jordan\u2019s first over of the day to close out the contest.
\nTaskin who hit the winning boundary was not out on 8.
\n\u201cI thought it was an outstanding bowling performance to defend a low total, we bowled without luck as well but really proud of everyone\u2019s effort,\u201d England captain Jos Buttler said.
\nEarlier, Taskin got the Bangladesh attack off the mark, removing Dawid Malan after England was put into bat first.
\nShakib got the better of Phil Salt who started well before his progress was halted, having reached a 19-ball 25.
\nBut the crucial breakthrough came when pacer Hasan Mahmud bowled Buttler (4) with a searing delivery.
\nMehidy got into the act to end Ben Duckett\u2019s resistance. Duckett reached a team-high 28 as Mehidy ripped through England\u2019s middle order.
\n\u201cIt was a different game of T20 cricket, exciting as well but credit to Bangladesh. There is no good way to get out, but it was a tough wicket to start on and Duckett was doing well, we needed someone to stay with him,\u201d added Buttler.
\nThe third and final T20 is on Tuesday. AP<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
DHAKA, Bangladesh, 12 Mar: Bangladesh wrapped up the three-match T20 series against England with a game to spare as Mehidy Hasan claimed a career-best 4-12 and added a crucial 20-run knock to secure a four-wicket victory over the tourists on Sunday. Bangladesh held England to a lowly 117 in 20 overs, before knocking off the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-212653","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212653","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=212653"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/212653\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=212653"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=212653"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=212653"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}