DHAKA: Mehidy Hasan Miraz shone with ball and bat as Bangladesh stunned England to win the second T20 international by four wickets and seal the series 2-0.

Mehidy bowled a career-best 4-12 to help the hosts bowl out England for 117 before he hit 20 off 16 balls as Bangladesh raced to 120-6 in 18.5 overs.

Najmul Hossain top-scored at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka with 46 not out for Bangladesh, who have now won at least one series in one format against all Test-playing countries.

The hosts won the first match of the series by six wickets in Chittagong.

Sent into bat first, England were rarely in the contest after losing their way in the middle of the innings as their batsmen struggled to cope with a low and slow wicket in Mirpur.

Shakib Al Hasan, Taskin Ahmed, Hasan Mahmud and Mustafizur Rahman each com­p­lemented Mehidy with a wicket.

Taskin dismissed opener Dawid Malan for five but Salt and Moeen Ali showed positive intent to put on 34 runs for the second wicket.

Ben Duckett top-scored with 28 while Phil Salt made 25 off 19 balls.

The visitors then lost Salt, skipper Jos Buttler (four) and Ali (15) in consecutive overs to ruin their prospect of putting in a big total.

Mehidy then struck twice in one over to dismiss Sam Curran (12) and Chris Woakes (0) to deny England a late recovery.

Bangladesh in their reply lost both their openers Liton Das (nine) and Rony Talukdar (nine) cheaply but young Towhid Hridoy made 17 to steady the innings.

Najmul and Mehidy put Bangladesh in charge with a 41-run stand. England snif­fed a chance with a few late wickets as Jofra Archer wracked havoc to finish with 3-13.

However, Najmul thwarted the visiting side with his unbeaten 47-ball innings featuring three boundaries.

Taskin completed the win with consecutive fours off Chris Jordan in the nineteenth over.

SCOREBOARD

ENGLAND:

P. Salt c&b Shakib 25

D. Malan c Hasan b Taskin 5

M. Ali c (Sub) b Mehidy 15

J. Buttler b Hasan 4

B. Duckett c Najmul b Mustafizur 28

S. Curran st Liton b Mehidy 12

C. Woakes st Liton b Mehidy 0

C. Jordan c Rony b Mehidy 3

R. Ahmed run out 11

A. Rashid not out 1

J. Archer run out 0

EXTRAS (LB-7, W-6) 13

TOTAL (all out, 20 overs) 117

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-16 (Malan), 2-50 (Salt), 3-55 (Buttler), 4-57 (Ali), 5-91 (Curran), 6-91 (Woakes), 7-100 (Jordan), 8-114 (Duckett), 9-116 (Ahmed)

BOWLING: Taskin 4-0-27-1 (3w), Mustafizur 4-0-19-1 (1w), Nasum 1-0-13-0, Shakib 3-0-13-1 (1w), Hasan 2-0-10-1, Mehidy 4-0-12-4, Najmul 1-0-9-0, Afif 1-0-7-0 (1w)

BANGLADESH:

Liton Das c Salt b Curran 9

Rony Talukdar c Ali b Archer 9

Najmul Hossain Shanto not out 46

Towhid Hridoy c Woakes b Ahmed 17

Mehidy Hasan c Rashid b Archer 20

Shakib Al Hasan c Jordan b Ali 0

Afif Hossain b Archer 2

Taskin Ahmed not out 8

EXTRAS (B-4, LB-2, W-3) 9

TOTAL (for six wickets, 18.5 overs) 120

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-16 (Liton), 2-27 (Rony), 3-56 (Towhid), 4-97 (Mehidy), 5-100 (Shakib), 6-105 (Afif)

DID NOT BAT: T. Ahmed, H. Mahmud, M. Rahman

BOWLING: Curran 3-0-15-1 (1w), Woakes 1-0-7-0, Archer 4-0-13-3, Ali 4-0-25-1, Rashid 4-0-28-0 (2w), Ahmed 2-0-11-1, Jordan 0.5-0-15

RESULT: Bangladesh won by four wickets.

Published in Dawn, March 13th, 2023