ENGLAND crumbled to their first series defeat against Bangladesh in any format as a winter of glory lurches towards anti-climax.
Jos Buttler shuffled his batting order – demoting himself from opener to No4 – but England were routed for just 117 all out in the second Twenty20 match.
Bangladesh knocked off the runs for a four-wicket victory with seven balls to spare and took an unbeatable 2-0 series lead. The final match on Tuesday is a dead rubber.
It was not the performance Buttler and coach Matthew Mott would have expected from their T20 world champions.
But the thought remains that this final instalment of the winter action – which has embraced ten series across five countries – is low on importance.
Several of the team that won the global T20 title are missing and, when Will Jacks and Tom Abell were injured, they were not replaced. That left England with a lop-sided squad that is light on batting.
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Bangladesh were rejoicing, though, because they have never previously won a series of any sort against England.
Captain Buttler, who called incorrectly at the toss for the eighth match on the trot, said: “It was a different sort of T20 game, but very exciting. Credit to Bangladesh for outplaying us.
“It was a tough wicket to start your innings on. We needed somebody to bat through the innings. I thought Ben Duckett was doing that beautifully but we needed somebody to stay with him.
“I thought our bowling was outstanding as we tried to defend a low score. We bowled without luck at times. I’m really proud of everyone’s efforts in the field, but credit to Bangladesh.”
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Rehan Ahmed completed his hat-trick of youngest-ever England players when he added a T20 debut – aged 18 years and 211 days – to his Test and 50-over age records. Wrist-spinner Ahmed took a wicket with his second ball, too.
And Jofra Archer bowled regularly at 90mph-plus with his easy rhythm looking in fine working order and finished with the impressive figures of 4-0-13-3.
Before the game, he said he would be happy to play on Ashes Test this summer. On this evidence, with his comeback from injury going so well, England will want him as much as possible against the Aussies.
They were the plus points for England but their fate was sealed when they descended from 50-1 to 57-4.
England never recovered from that mid-innings stumble and Bangladesh spinner Medhi finished with 4-12 on a tired pitch that aided the slower bowlers.
Chris Jordan, one of England’s top T20 bowlers in recent years, wasn’t handed the ball until the 19th over and was promptly hit for 15 runs from five balls.
Najmul Hossain Shanto finished 46 not out and Taskin Ahmed hit Jordan for a couple of boundaries to seal the deal.
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