An impressive knock from Lancashire CC’s Jos Buttler was not enough as Englandf failed to recover from a collapse against Bangladesh.
The three-game series comes on the back of the visitors’ success in the previous One Day International series.
Buttler opened the batting with Lancashire teammate Phil Salt after Alex Hales decided to snub the tour in favour of the Pakistan Super League.
The Lancashire duo made the most of the power play by putting on 51 runs for none, despite Shakib Al Hasan dropping Buttler on 19.
The scoring slowed following the powerplay until Buttler hit his second six of the innings, with Salt quickly hitting a six and two fours of his own.
Bangladesh struck back in the tenth over, with Litton Das catching Salt behind.
The opener reviewed the call, but Ultraedge could give him no reprieve.
Dawid Malan, coming off the back of a good ODI series, survived only seven balls before leaving the crease for four.
Buttler looked to accelerate England’s innings in the thirteenth over, hitting two sixes and bringing up his fifty.
Bangladesh struck back, bowling out Duckett in the sixteenth over and then taking another three wickets for only 21 runs.
England posted what felt like a somewhat underwhelming score of 156-6.
Bangladesh came out swinging, hitting 32 in the first three overs before Adil Rashid bowled Rony Talukdar for 21.
Najmul Shanto took control in the seventh over, hitting Mark Wood for four fours in a row before surviving a tepid LBW shout from the fast bowler.
Moeen Ali broke the home side’s momentum by taking the wicket of debutant Towhid Hridoy for 24 runs.
Wood followed suit, taking revenge on the free-flowing Shanto, bowling him for 51.
Despite England slowing Bangladesh’s run rate, the home side reached 157 with twelve balls and six wickets to spare.
England play the second game of the series on Sunday morning.
(Featured Image – Jos Buttler, pic by permission from Lancashire CCC)
