England’s first T20 since being crowned world champions ended in defeat as Najmul Hossain Shanto’s half-century helped Bangladesh to a six-wicket victory in the series opener.
Kicking off the last of seven series across all formats in what has been a hugely congested winter, England named a strong side, including seven of the XI from last year’s World Cup final victory over Pakistan, as well as Dawid Malan and Mark Wood, who both woul have featured in that game if not for the injuries that ended their tournaments prematurely.
Jos Buttler made 67 off 42 balls and fellow opener Phil Salt a more workmanlike 38 off 35 to have England well set for a big finish at 135-for-two, but after Buttler and Ben Duckett (20 off 13) fell in successive deliveries a weakened middle order failed to fire late on.
Just 21 runs came off the final 23 balls of the innings as a bowler-heavy lineup that included Moeen Ali at No5 and Sam Curran at No6 crawled to 156-for-six from 20 overs.
“I thought Bangladesh finished the innings really well,” Buttler said. “We were in a position to kick on and launch it at the end but we couldn't manage to get away and we were probably 20 short of where we wanted to be with the score and chased it a little bit in the field.
“That was where we felt if we had extra runs on the board it would have been a little bit easier but Bangladesh came out and played with a lot of intent, took the game on and put us under a lot of pressure.”
Adil Rashid and Jofra Archer both took wickets in the powerplay, but Shanto’s 51, which included eight boundaries, put the home side in sight of the line, the No3’s knock eventually ended by Wood with just 45 runs needed and almost eight overs still remaining.
Shakib Al Hasan, whose outstanding all-round performance had earned Bangladesh a consolation victory in the third ODI on Monday, then saw his side home with an unbeaten 34 off 24.
