Litton Das finds spark before Bangladesh bowlers choke chase

Bangladesh 158 for 2 (Litton 73, Shanto 47*, Jordan 1-21) beat England 142 for 6 (Malan 53, Buttler 40, Taskin 2-26) by 16 runs

Malan however bookended the tour with important knocks. He made the unbeaten 114 in the first ODI on March 1, the innings that took England to a hard-fought victory. Malan made 53 in this game, hitting six fours and two sixes in his 47-ball stay. He struck his sixes hoicking over long-on and sweeping over fine leg, adding fours from a few sweetly-timed flicks and cuts, as well as the cover drive.

Buttler aided him with faster scoring. He struck balls straight, hitting a six and two fours down the ground, apart from two fours through midwicket. England were cruising till the 13th over with the second-wicket pair together, and an easy chase looked in the offing.

Wickets bring back the hosts

But it all changed when Mustafizur had Malan caught behind, to pick up his 100th wicket in T20Is. He is the second Bangladesh to reach this landmark, after Shakib Al Hasan. When Buttler was run out next ball, the home side sensed a comeback. Mehidy Hasan Miraz struck the stumps from point, and then ran off towards long-off to celebrate.

Litton raises the tempo

Finally Litton got his much-awaited big score in white-ball cricket. His last significant knock in T20Is was the sparkling 60 against India in the T20 World Cup. He didn’t do much in the ODIs against India and England, particularly disappointing after his stellar 2022. But over the last five years, a big score from Litton has always looked around the corner. And so it happened in Dhaka in the last game.

Litton stamped his authority in the 55-run opening stand with Rony Talukdar. His older partner, Rony, flashed away to get 24 off 22 balls, including a shocking dropped catch by Rehan Ahmed at short third man. Litton got into the flow after the halfway stage, first hitting Chris Jordan for two fours, pulled and lofted over mid-off.

Ben Duckett dropped him on 51 at deep midwicket, after which he got two boundaries off Jofra Archer, one a top edge and another a pulled six. The crème de la crème was his inside-out loft against Adil Rashid in the 15th over. Bangladesh were motoring along at this stage, and looked like getting a 175-plus total at this stage.

England rein back the scoring

Litton and Shanto added 84 runs for the second wicket, but around the time of Litton’s dismissal, England had brought back the scoring rate for about two-and-a-half overs. Shakib was struggling to time the ball, and suddenly along with Shanto, the pair started to look for more percentage shots rather than using the full face of the bat.

Credit to the England fast bowlers who scrambled through their variations very well. Jordan, Archer and Sam Curran brought back the visitors by conceding just 27 runs in the last five overs.

Shanto, who looked in ominous form before Litton’s dismissal with a couple of sixes, struck the only boundary during this phase, but couldn’t find further boundaries in the remaining overs. Shakib too couldn’t press on despite the great base. Perhaps the pitch slowed up but the England fast bowlers really brought their A-game in the death overs. But their batters couldn’t get the job done.