A move to the middle of the order for Lancashire’s Jos Buttler was not enough to secure England’s stuttering batting line-up as they lost their second of the three-game t20 series in Bangladesh.
Bangladesh put England into bat after Buttler continued his comically poor luck with the toss, losing his eighth in a row.
The England skipper gave 18-year-old Rehan Ahmed his debut in place of Mark Wood, making him the country’s youngest debutant in the T20 format.
After a nervy start for the visitors, Taskin Ahmed struck in the third over, taking Dawid Malan’s wicket for just five runs.
With Buttler now fourth in the order, Moeen Ali came to the crease and found the boundary with only the second ball he faced.
Lancashire opener Phil Salt released some pressure in the fourth over by hitting the first six of the innings.
Ali hit the final ball of the powerplay for a maximum, giving England respectable figures of 50-1 in the first six overs.
The dismissal of Salt in the seventh over gave way to a middle-order collapse for England, finding themselves 91-6 just eight overs later.
Mehidy Hasan took the wicket of Chris Jordan at the end of the 17th over, finishing his spell with magnificent figures of 4-12.
Ben Duckett and debutant Ahmed did their best to bring the visitors up to a par score, but a flurry of runouts in the final over left the visitors with a disappointing score of 117 with one ball remaining.
With Bangladesh needing only 118 runs, England needed to take wickets quickly, and Sam Curran duly obliged by taking the wicket of Litton Das for nine runs in the third over.
Rony Talukdar was the next to depart, with Jofra Archer taking his wicket in the final over of the power play and giving England a slither of hope.
In only his second ball in international T20, Ahmed took the wicket Towhid Hridoy for 17 runs.
Bangladesh had a mini-collapse of their own late on, losing a wicket in the 16th, 17th and 18th overs, setting up an exciting finale.
Despite this, the home side managed to get over the line with seven balls and four wickets to spare.
England play the final game on Tuesday morning, but the loss today means the series goes to the hosts.
(Featured Image – Jos Buttler, By Nic Redhead, Flikr, Creative Commons License)
