On a surface billed as something of a road England and Bangladesh produced an encounter of numerous left turns. The anticipated runfest turned into something very different once the home side put the brakes on a high-octane start to England’s pursuit of 247 and the wickets started to fall.
It turned out that for England it was a road to ruin: the dead end came with just under seven overs to go, Bangladesh winning by 50 runs.
Both captains agreed that Bangladesh’s total was a bit below par but they more than made up for it in the field. “Whatever you have on the board, you have to go and fight for it,” Tamim Iqbal said. “And we kept on fighting for it.”
The fight did not start well but after racing to 50 without loss off 52 balls, 30 fewer than Bangladesh had taken to reach the same score, the wheels fell off for England. Nine balls later it was 55 for three.
Though James Vince and Sam Curran – promoted to bat at five – restored some kind of stability with a partnership of 49, as the floodlights came on the sun gradually set on England’s chances. They struggled so badly as night fell that one boundary was scored between the second ball of the 21st over and the last of the 40th, by which time their hopes were dwindling.
Bangladesh’s bowling was brilliantly precise, with Shakib Al Hasan, also outstanding with the bat, collecting his 300th one-day international wicket along the way and Ebadot Hossain excelling on his first appearance of the series.
Shakib made the first breakthrough: Phil Salt had looked in fearsome touch and after scoring three boundaries in two overs appeared to be hitting top gear when he biffed a Shakib delivery straight to point, where Mahmudullah took an easy catch. Salt beat his bat in fury at the waste of a fine start and he was not the last Englishman whose bat was to be beaten.
Shakib’s second wicket came in his next over, Jason Roy missing an attempted cut as the ball kept low. In between Dawid Malan slapped Ebadot straight to mid-on without scoring, an unusual choice of shot for a batter often so careful early in his innings. After his matchwinning century in the first ODI, Malan has spent the series going from hero to zero.
Vince had failed twice with the bat in the series and, earlier in the day, three times in the field – two misfields and a dropped catch each leading to boundaries – but he batted with authority for a while. He peaked when thumping a Shakib delivery dismissively down the ground for four; the next ball took an edge on its way into the gloves of Mushfiqur Rahim.
Rehan Ahmed, on his white‑ball debut, was Shakib’s other victim, caught brilliantly by Mehidy Hasan at short midwicket to bring Bangladesh close to victory. Mustafizur Rahman produced a juggling catch off his own bowling to dismiss Chris Woakes and seal it.
Perhaps England might have fared better had they allowed Adil Rashid to bowl his full allocation of overs instead of Ahmed. The debutant needed every delivery to claim his first wicket, a simple return catch to dismiss Mehidy. Rashid had half as many overs but produced a masterclass for Ahmed to admire at close quarters, taking two wickets. Jofra Archer took three, despite rarely bowling at full pace, and Curran again made an instant impact as England bowled Bangladesh out for the third time in the series.
Najmul Hossain Shanto and Mushfiqur scored half-centuries – the latter contributing five runs fewer than Shakib, albeit scoring significantly more slowly – but there was no doubt about who was the star of this performance.
Shakib is a hero in this country, one of the world’s great ODI players, but this had been a disappointing series for him and much of Bangladesh’s old guard (for Litton Das it has been something of an omnishambles: seven runs in three innings and none at all in the final two, both ended by Curran).
Shakib achieved redemption with a champion’s flourish, his 71-ball 75 instrumental to hauling his team to a defendable total and his bowling key to undermining England’s chase. It seemed the only person not completely convinced by his performance was the man himself.
“We expect our players to score hundreds, not fifties,” he said.
