Bangladesh seal series whitewash over T20 world champions England

Tigers secure 16-run victory in Mirpur to make it three wins in a row over Jos Buttler's side

Bangladesh celebrate after completing a 3-0 series win over England on March 14, 2023. Reuters

Bangladesh completed an impressive series whitewash over T20 world champions England on Tuesday after a 16-run victory in Mirpur.

The home side reached 158-2 in their innings after losing the toss with opener Litton Das top-scoring with 73, while Najmul Hossain Shanto continued his fine form with an unbeaten 47.

England also made life difficult for themselves with Rehan Ahmed and Ben Duckett both dropping simple chances off the bowling of Jofra Archer.

In reply, England lost Phil Salt for first ball duck before a 95-run stand between Dawid Malan and captain Jos Buttler gave them hope of avoiding a third defeat in a row, carrying the tourists to 100-1 after 13 overs.

But they lost Malan (53) and Buttler (40) in successive balls, swinging the momentum firmly back in Bangladesh's favour and the visitors could only reach 142-6 from their 20 overs.

Victory at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium capped a memorable series for the hosts who had won the first two matches by six wickets and four wickets, respectively, in what is only the third T20I whitewash ever inflicted on England.

“We were really good in this T20 series, fielded well, the bowlers were good, batters contributed,” said Bangladesh captain Shakib Al Hasan.

“We batted really well on a tricky wicket, credit to Litton and Rony, we were happy with the total, and had to stick to our plan.

“That over to get two set batsmen out in two balls [Malan and Buttler] changed the game completely. From then on, we had the momentum.”

Bangladesh beat England - in pictures

Opener Liton had given Bangladesh a positive start, putting on 55 runs with Rony Talukdar in the opening stand.

England's first breakthrough came when Adil Rashid dismissed Rony for 24 but Najmul Hossain and Liton added 84 runs for the second wicket to keep up momentum.

England missed a chance to dismiss Liton soon after the right-hander completed his ninth T20I half-century when Duckett dropped him on 51 at deep midwicket off Archer.

Chris Jordan brought an end to Liton's 57-ball innings, forcing him to give a catch to Phil Salt at deep midwicket.

England did well to contain the Bangladeshi batsmen after Liton's dismissal with only one boundary struck in the death overs.

But Najmul, who survived on 40 after being given lbw off Jordan, ensured Bangladesh still had a decent score with his third 40-plus innings in a row to claim the Player of the Series award.

In reply, England started poorly as debutant Tanvir Islam dismissed Salt for a duck, but Malan and Buttler put England back in control.

Mustafizur Rahman added the first twist in the contest by removing Malan, which brought him his 100th T20I wicket. Buttler was soon run out with a direct hit from Mehidy Hasan.

Taskin returned to claim the wickets of Moeen Ali (nine) and Ben Duckett (11) before Shakib Al Hasan get rid of Sam Curran (four) to complete the rout.

“It's really disappointing to lose but congrats to Bangladesh, they outplayed us and deserve their victory,” said Buttler. “We came back well, after missing some opportunities in the field … and it was a good score to restrict them to.

“Losing two wickets in two balls is really poor, [and] I was very disappointed in myself not diving [for his run out] that potentially cost us the game.”