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Liton Das's T20I career-best 73 helped Bangladesh stunned world champions England to sweep the three-match T20I series 3-0 Tuesday.
Chasing 159 for victory, Bangladesh restricted England to 142/6 after scoring 158/2 on the board. Opener Liton Das scored the highest with 73 while Najmul Hossain Shanto and Rony Talukdar contributed with 47* and 24, respectively. Taskin Ahmed led all Bangladeshi bowlers with two wickets, while Tanvir Islam, Shakib Al Hasan, and Mustafizur each claimed one. The visitors got off to a bad start when Phil Salt was dismissed for a golden duck in the first over, but from that point on, the Three Lions' ship was steadied by Dawid Malan and Jos Buttler, who put together a 95-run combination for the second wicket. When the hosts increased the pressure on England, Malan top-edged one to Das behind the wickets in the 14th over to become Mustafizur Rahman's 100th victim. Then, Buttler was run out on the following delivery while trying a dangerous single. The visitors were never able to bounce back, scoring 142-6 off of their 20 overs after Moeen Ali and Ben Duckett also fell trying to hit huge shots against Taskin Ahmed. Only three bilateral T20 series with at least two games have seen England blanked in total. Malan struck 53, and skipper Buttler produced a quickfire 40, but after Mustafizur Rahman broke the stand with the first delivery of the 14th over, the England chase faltered. England's hopes were further damaged by Buttler's run out after the very next delivery, and they ultimately lost by a respectable margin. Bangladesh put up some impressive performances against the world champions in the shortest format, and they prevented England from winning the previous three-match one-day international series by winning the last game. Put to bat first they got off to a strong start after shocking England in their first two T20 games. Das and fellow opener Rony Talukdar (24) settled in early on a decent surface to hit 46 in the powerplay. Talukdar was caught after a botched reverse-sweep off Adil Rashid after failing to capitalise on being dropped on 17 by Rehan Ahmed off Jofra Archer. Yet when Shanto, his replacement, entered the game, he further enraged England. After reaching his tenth half-century and being caught by Duckett at deep midwicket off Archer, Das was also given a reprieve. He continued to hammer England's bowlers before eventually holing out to Salt in the deep. When England tightened its grip in the last overs, led by Rashid (1-23), Chris Jordan (1-21), and Sam Curran (0-28), Shanto narrowly missed reaching his half-century. (ANI)
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