Mehidy Hasan Miraz shone with ball and bat as minnows Bangladesh stunned world champions England to win the second Twenty20 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 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka.
The defeat, which followed a six-wicket loss in the first T20, was a wake-up call for England’s white ball unit before the 50-over World Cup on similarly tricky low-bounce Indian pitches later this year.
Najmul Hossain top-scored with 46 not out for Bangladesh, who have now won at least one series in one format against all Test-playing countries.
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 Mah-mud and Mustafizur Rahman each complemented Mehidy with a wicket apiece.
Ben Duckett top-scored with 28 while Phil Salt made 25 off 19 balls. Taskin dismissed opener Dawid Malan for five but Salt and Moeen Ali showed positive intent to put on 34 runs for the second wicket.
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. “It was a different game of T20 cricket, exciting as well but credit to Bangladesh,” cricket website CricBuzz quoted Buttler as saying after the game.
“{It) was a tough wicket to start on and Duckett was doing well, we needed someone to stay with him,” he said.
“I thought it was an outstanding bowling per-formance to defend a low total. We bowled without luck as well but really proud of everyone’s effort,” Buttler added.
Bangladesh skipper Shakib called it “a very good team effort”. “They had a very good start, but we kept our nerve,” he said
“In a tricky game like this it was important to keep our nerve,” he added.
The third and final match of the series will be held at the same ground on Tuesday. England won the preceding three-match one-day international series 2-1.—AFP
