Bangladesh cruise to T20 victory over England with thrilling batting display

Bangladesh produced a thrilling display of batting to cruise to victory in the first T20 against England, Najmul Hossain Shanto’s half-century helping to make England’s 156-6 appear frivolously lightweight as the home side chased it down for the loss of four wickets, with two overs remaining.

After England, thanks largely to Jos Buttler’s 42-ball 67, had set a target of 157 Rony Talukdar, making his second T20 international appearance nearly eight years after his debut, started Bangladesh’s reply as if determined to make up for lost time. Litton Das meanwhile shrugged off the horrors of his recent ODI series (three innings, two ducks, seven runs) to just about keep pace. The first three overs went for 10, 11 and 11 again, at which point Buttler gave the ball to Adil Rashid, so often England’s white-ball salvation.

Rashid did his best. His second delivery was a googly, and Rony completely misread it as it spun past his bat and into leg stump; three balls later the bowler looked to have trapped Najmul Hossain Shanto lbw only for the new batter to be saved on review by the fact the ball hit both his bat and his glove on its way to his pad. In the following over Das top-edged a Jofra Archer delivery to mid-on and the match seemed once again in balance.

But Shanto and Towhid Hridoy, the rising star of Bangladeshi batting making his international debut, settled straight into their work and in the space of six balls around the end of the powerplay made the decisive move. Hridoy hit the last two deliveries of the sixth over, bowled by Chris Woakes, for four and then Shanto immediately tucked into Mark Wood, hitting his first four balls of the day to various parts of the boundary padding, one just over Chris Jordan at mid-on,