Liton, Shanto shine as Tigers post 158

Opener Liton Das ended a lean patch with his career-best T20I score while Najmul Hossain Shanto continued his terrific form with yet another solid knock as Bangladesh amassed 158 for two wickets in the third and final T20I against England in Mirpur today.

Barring a few close calls, Bangladesh batters dominated proceedings for the most part after being asked to bat with Liton smashing 73 off 57 deliveries and Shanto remaining unbeaten on 47 off 36 deliveries. However, the Tigers failed to ratchet up the scoring rate in the final overs, managing to score only 27 runs in the last five overs despite having eight wickets in hand. 

England could blame themselves as they were sloppy in the field, letting a few boundaries slip away and also dropping sitters to see Liton and Rony Talukdar survive on 51 and 17, respectively. 

Liton, after disappointing with scores of 12 and nine in the first two T20Is respectively, was finally able to find his rhythm as he picked up his ninth fifty off 40 deliveries. He was dropped off an Archer delivery just after reaching his fifty. But the batter only went on to up the ante after reaching the landmark score, smashing Archer for a boundary and a six in that over before going inside out to lift Adil Rashid for another boundary in the next over.  

Liton, who starred in a 55-run opening stand with Rony Talukdar (24 off 22) and another 84-run second-wicket stand with Shanto, fell in the 18th over when he holed out to midwicket off a Chris Jordan delivery.

Shanto, meanwhile, kept on his impressive form as he began by taking on the English spinners. He smashed leggie Rehan Ahmed and Moeen Ali for two massive sixes over midwicket to not let the England spinners assume control after opener Rony fell in the eighth over.