Bangladesh clinch maiden T20I series over England

Bangladesh clinched a maiden T20I series win over England as they beat the visitors by four wickets in the second T20I of the three-match series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Sunday. 

With this win, the Tigers took a 2-0 lead in the series with a game in hand. 

Mehedi Hasan Miraz picked up four wickets to help restrict England to 117 while Najmul Hossain Shanto scored an unbeaten 46 in reply as Bangladesh chased down the target with seven balls to spare.

Batting first, England managed to post a meagre 117. 

A reshuffle in the batting line-up saw Dawid Malan open the innings with Phil Salt. The former struggled to get going and fell to Taskin Ahmed in the third over when he tried to lift a good-length delivery over mid-on. It went the opposite of what he tried to do as he could only top-edge it to deep third-man.

But the main aggressor was Salt, who hit three fours and one six for his 19-ball 25, to take England to 50 after the first six, with Moeen Ali at the other end.

Salt, however, couldn't capitalize on his start and was dismissed by Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan in the seventh over.

Like Salt, England had the same struggle as they failed to take advantage of their start and following the loss of        

Salt, it was one-way traffic as the Tigers spinners put a stranglehold on the England batters and took wickets at regular intervals.

Speedster Hasan Mahmud bowled a spearing yorker to castle danger man Jos Buttler, and Miraz joined in on the act later on as he spun webs on the batters scalping four wickets.

Mustafizur Rahman's slower got the better of Ben Duckett leaving the left-handed pacer only one wicket shy of 100 T20I wickets.

Shakib and Taskin Ahmed scalped one wicket each on a day when the skipper decided to use a total of eight bowlers.

In reply, Bangladesh lost openers Liton Das and Rony Talukdar inside the powerplay leaving them two down for 32 after the end of the first six.

Shanto stood tall from one end to safeguard Bangladesh through difficult phases as he stitched successive impactful partnerships with Towhid Hridoy and Miraz to safeguard the Tigers to a memorable win.

Hridoy impressed with his 18-ball 17, and Miraz's 16-ball 20 featured two sixes.

But a flurry of wickets that saw Miraz, Shakib, and Afif get dismissed within the space of two overs seemed to have caused jitters in the Tigers camp but Taskin smashed back-to-back boundaries off Chris Jordan in the 19th over to take Bangladesh home.