England lose third and final T20 international to Bangladesh by 16 runs after stumbling from 100-1 in chase of 159; home side clinch series sweep over reigning T20 World Cup champions; England not in white-ball action again until August 30 when they start T20 series against New Zealand
Wednesday 15 March 2023 08:46, UK
England suffered a late-innings batting collapse as Bangladesh clinched a 3-0 T20 international series sweep with a 16-run victory in Mirpur.
England's batting had stuttered as they lost the first two matches by six and four wickets respectively and they faltered again on Tuesday chasing 159, slipping from 100-1 after 13 overs to 123-5 after 17 and finishing on 142-6 once a 95-run stand between Dawid Malan (53) and Jos Buttler (40) for the second wicket came to an end.
Malan, who overturned an lbw dismissal on six before being dropped on 42, and skipper Buttler departed from successive balls in a two-run 14th over - Malan caught behind off Mustafizur Rahman, Buttler run out by Mehidy Hasan Miraz - before Moeen Ali (9), Ben Duckett (11) and Sam Curran (4) came and went.
England required 27 from the final over and gave themselves a glimmer of hope when Chris Woakes (13no) smoked Hasan Mahmud for successive fours, but the tourists managed just two byes and two dots after that as Bangladesh celebrated a whitewash against the reigning T20 world champions.
England were sloppy in the field earlier on as Bangladesh reached 131-1 from 15 overs after being inserted, with the litany of errors including dreadful dropped catches from Rehan Ahmed and Duckett.
Duckett shelled Bangladesh top-scorer Litton Das (73 off 57) on 51 at deep midwicket after Ahmed had grassed Das' opening partner Rony Talukdar (24) on 17 at short third, with Jofra Archer the unfortunate bowler on both occasions as he went wicketless.
The tourists limited the Tigers to only 27 runs from the final five overs as Archer (0-33), Curran (0-28) and Chris Jordan (1-21) bowled superbly and with variety - but Bangladesh's attack were then equally impressive at the death later on.
England are not in white-ball action again until August 30 when they begin a four-match T20 international series at home to New Zealand, with four ODIs against the Black Caps and then three ODIs versus Ireland to follow ahead of their 50-over World Cup title defence in India in October and November.
England head coach Matthew Mott said: "That one hurts. To finish the way we did will leave a bit of a sour taste in our mouths. It should act as a real eye-opener on where we need to improve.
"Bangladesh definitely out-fielded us in most of the games but particularly in this match. That's something we're going to focus a lot on.
"We showed a bit of ticker at the back end to wrestle some momentum but I think with the best of hindsight, [Bangladesh] were still at least 15 or 20 runs over par on that wicket. We paid heavily for those mistakes.
"The turning point was [Buttler's] run-out, it was an amazing piece of fielding. You back yourself with Jos set at the backend. He got his eye in and was ready to go so [his dismissal] really turned the game."
England's chase got off to an inauspicious start with Phil Salt (0) stumped off debuting Bangladesh spinner Tanvir Islam in the first over and they were perhaps fortunate not to be 8-2 in the second.
Malan was given out lbw to Taskin Ahmed but overturned the decision on review with the TV umpire deciding bat was involved - despite the spike on UltraEdge seeming to have come after the ball had passed the left-hander's inside edge.
England were then clear favourites with 59 required from the final seven overs and nine wickets in hand, only for Malan to top-edge a pull off Mustafizur and Buttler to be run out as Mehidy shot down the stumps from point.
Moeen holed out in the deep off Taskin three overs later before the same bowler splattered Duckett's stumps and Curran - once again coming in potentially a spot too high at No 6 - sliced Shakib Al Hasan to point amid a collapse of 5-28.
Litton and Rony put on 55 for Bangladesh's first wicket in the series finale after being aided by a number of England mis-fields but their stand was snapped in the eighth over when Rony ballooned back to Adil Rashid (1-23) on the reverse sweep.
The hosts continued to dominate, though, as Litton and Najmul Hossain Shanto (47no off 36) plundered 84 from just 58 balls, during which time Shanto smeared sixes off Rashid's fellow spinners Ahmed and Moeen, and Litton mowed a maximum off Archer five balls after being dropped.
The last of Das' 11 boundaries came in the 15th over - an exquisite four off Rashid inside-out over extra-cover - and he then holed out off Jordan in the 17th as England's seamers put the squeeze on and Shanto and Shakib (4no) struggled to score.
Archer featured in back-to-back games, a sign that his fitness is in good shape as he aims to play a big part in England's bid to regain The Ashes from Australia in June and July and then retain the 50-over World Cup in the autumn.
England captain Jos Buttler:
"We got into a position where we hoped we'd kick on and win the game, but that didn't happen. Losing two wickets in two balls is really poor. I'm really disappointed in myself for not diving and making my ground. It potentially cost us the game.
"We missed some opportunities in the field, which is obviously disappointing, but we came back well with the ball and it was a good score to restrict them to.
"It's really disappointing to lose this series, but congratulations to Bangladesh - they've outplayed us and have deserved their victory."
Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan:
"We were really good in this series. We fielded exceptionally throughout the three matches and all of the bowlers played well. The batters contributed, too.
"In this game, I thought we batted really well on a tricky wicket. Batting first is never easy, knowing what is going to be a good score. We then kept pressurising them with the ball. Mustafizur [Rahman] was fantastic - an unbelievable job."
England head coach Matthew Mott:
"There was a realisation that we were probably better off investing in some batters here and putting them under pressure in these games. You only learn from your mistakes
"The opportunities they were given here will give them time to reflect and when we get into pressure situations in World Cups, I am confident that it will have been the right decision."
