On Tuesday, March 14, Bangladesh made history when they defeated England 3-0 in a T20I series after defeating them by 16 runs in the second T20. It was the first time since 2014 that England lost all three games of a T20I series.
The first T20I series between the two nations featured a dominant performance by Bangladesh, who won the opening two games by scores of six and four wickets, respectively. Shakib Al Hasan, the team’s captain, claimed after his team’s outstanding performance against the World Champions that their fielding was the difference in the series and he set his goal to become the finest fielding side in Asia. “Everyone noticed our fielding in these three matches. We out-fielded England, who are themselves a good fielding side. It is a big tick mark. Our biggest improvement is in our fielding when I consider every aspect,” Shakib said after the match.
“We should always field well, but we have targeted to become the best fielding side in Asia. After this performance, I don’t think we are too far behind,” he added. Bangladesh was given the opportunity to bat by England in the third game held at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka, and they made 158/2 in the first innings. With Jos Buttler (40* off 31) and Dawid Malan (53* off 46) at the crease, England’s reply was initially cruising at 100/1 after 13 overs.
Nevertheless, both were bowled on consecutive deliveries in the 14th over which caused a collapse in England’s batting as they concluded their innings on 142/6. Shakib stated that his side didn’t know what a good score on that pitch would be while discussing their strategy for batting first. “We didn’t know how many runs were enough on this pitch. So, we were very open-minded,” Shakib said.
“We first thought 140 was a good score. Then we got to a stage where we thought 170-180 would be our total. We didn’t get many runs in the last five overs, but we batted well in the powerplay and middle overs. They have seven or eight proper bowlers so we had to struggle at least once in the innings. The way Rony and Litton started, and then Shanto and Litton build the innings, especially their running between the wickets, it was outstanding. The way they turned ones into twos and twos into threes, it put England under pressure,” he added.
Litton Das was awarded Player of the Match in the third T20I for his knock of 73 off 57 while Najmul Hossain Shanto was awarded Player of the Series for finishing as the highest run scorer as he scored 144 runs at an average of 144 and strike rate of 127.43 across three matches.
