Bangladesh chase 157 with two overs to spare to win by six wickets; Najmul Hossain Shanto (51 off 30 balls) top-scored for Tigers, while Jos Buttler cracked 67 off 42 balls for England in losing cause; watch the second T20I on Sunday, live on Sky Sports
Thursday 9 March 2023 18:57, UK
England fell to a six-wicket defeat in their first T20 international since winning last year's T20 World Cup as Bangladesh comfortably chased down 157 to win the series-opening clash in Chattogram.
The tourists fielded seven members of the side who played in November's final against Pakistan at the MCG but a disjointed display from a shallow batting unit meant they managed only 156-6 batting first, despite an impressive 67 off 42 balls from Jos Buttler.
Najmul Hossain Shanto ignited Bangladesh's chase with a fine 51 from 30 deliveries, which included four fours smashed off the first four balls of a Mark Wood over, while Shakib Al Hasan cracked an unbeaten 34 off 24 balls to see the Tigers home with two overs to spare.
After being put into bat by Shakib after the Bangladesh skipper won the toss, Buttler shared in an 80-run opening stand with the slightly-less-fluent Phil Salt (38 off 35 balls).
In a chaotic final over of the powerplay both Salt and then Buttler were dropped on 20 and 19, respectively, with Bangladesh captain Shakib's drop of his opposite number particularly galling as he shelled a sitter at mid-on.
Salt struggled to make use of his let-off, becoming bogged down by Bangladesh's spinners. While he hit Nasum Ahmed (1-31) for six, the left-arm spinner had his revenge when Salt nicked off to end the 10th over - using up a review too as he failed to detect his toe-ended edge through to the keeper.
Dawid Malan (4) came and went quickly, but Ben Duckett (20 off 13) was effective with his wristy sweeps against the spinners and ramps to the quicks to be a capable foil for Buttler, who brought up a 32-ball fifty and England's 100 with a flat-batted six off Hasan Mahmud before making it back-to-back maximums off the paceman.
The pair put on 47 together, but their dismissals in successive deliveries either side of the 16-over mark derailed the England innings, with the visitors adding just 30 runs for the loss of four wickets in the final five overs.
Duckett lost his off-stump to a vicious delivery from Mustafizur Rahman (1-34) that jagged back into the left-hander and kept low, while Hasan Mahmud (2-26) then claimed the key wicket of Buttler, who toe-ended one to wide long-on when looking to clear the rope for a fifth time.
Mustafizur and Hasan continued to combine well, expertly taking the pace off the ball to frustrate Moeen Ali (8no) and Sam Curran (6), who was caught in the deep in the 19th over.
Chris Jordan squirted a four off Taskin Ahmed's last to at least lift England beyond 150, while Moeen was denied a six off the final ball after some superb fielding on the deep midwicket boundary - although Rony Talukdar then put down the simple relayed catch.
Talukdar (21 off 14) made amends, however, by helping Bangladesh fly out of the traps in the run-chase, but was stopped in his tracks when Buttler threw the ball to Adil Rashid (1-25), whose beautifully-flighted googly cleaned up the opener.
Shanto overturned an lbw verdict against him two balls later as the technology indicated he had gloved an attempted reverse sweep off the leg-spinner.
He then cashed in by carting Wood for four fours in a row, using the England's quick's pace against him, making it six successive fours after Chris Woakes had leaked a couple of boundaries to T20I debutant Towhid Hridoy (24 off 17) in his preceding over.
Towhid slammed Rashid for six but then miscued Moeen (1-27) to a fielder in the deep, while Wood (1-24) ended Shanto's fine innings with one that beat him for pace and clattered into middle stump.
Afif Hossain (15no off 13) was put down by a juggling Malan at point - a very difficult leaping effort - but otherwise he and Shakib safely and serenely saw Bangladesh to their target for a comfortable series-opening victory.
England captain, Jos Buttler:
"Bangladesh finished the innings [with the ball] really well.
"We were in a position to really kick on and launch at the end but we couldn't manage to get away.
"We were about 20 runs short of about where we would have liked to be with our score and that meant we ended up chasing it a bit in the field.
"Bangladesh came out with a lot of intent and took the chase on right away - they put us under a lot of pressure."
Bangladesh captain, Shakib Al Hasan:
"The way we approached the game was fantastic. I can't ask any more from my team.
"When bowling, in the first 10 overs we were under the pump a little bit but no-one panicked, everyone knew what we needed to do and stuck to their plans.
"This is a very good start. Hopefully we can continue this and build from here."
England move to Mirpur for the second game of the three-match T20I series in Bangladesh on Sunday. Live coverage starts from 8.30am on Sky Sports Cricket and Sky Sports Main Event, with play getting under way from 9am.
Watch England's three-match ODI tour of Bangladesh live on Sky Sports and stream on NOW TV.
