Bangladesh humble England in first T20 to leave Buttler with plenty to ponder
In their first outing since winning the T20 World Cup last year, England suffered a six wicket defeat to Bangladesh in Chattogram after a disappointing collapse.
Najmul Shanto was the star of the show for the hosts, building on an impressive showing in the ODI series to smash 51 off just 30 balls after Bangladesh's bowlers did well to limit England to just 156 despite a brilliant half-century from Jos Buttler.
Having been put into bat, captain Buttler led the way for England as he smashed 67 off 42 balls, benefitting from a horrendous dropped catch by Shakib Al Hasan when he was on 19. He was by far the most fluent of England's batters, blasting four sixes and four fours as he shared crucial partnerships worth 80 and 47 respectively with Phil Salt and Ben Duckett.
"We saw another masterful Buttler innings," former England bowler Steven Finn told Sky Sports. "Buttler played some lovely strong shots. They gave him room outside off stump, allowing him to free his arms. He showed why he's the world-class player that every franchise in the world wants to play for them."
When Buttler and Duckett were in the midst of their stand, England looked set to make a huge total. However, Bangladesh's bowlers fought back well to keep England below 160, with Hasan Mahmud the pick of the bowlers as he took 2-26.
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The hosts took charge of the game when Duckett and Buttler were dismissed off successive deliveries, with Mustafizur Rahman bowling Duckett for an enterprising 20 and Mahmud getting Buttler caught at long-on.
England managed to strike just one boundary in the last four overs as they fell from 135-2 to 156-6, with all-rounders Moeen Ali, Sam Curran and Chris Woakes all struggling. And Bangladesh were able to carry that momentum into their chase as they got off to a strong start before England picked up two quick wickets.
Najmul Shanto smashed a brilliant 51 for Bangladesh, building on the two impressive half-centuries he made in the ODI series (MUNIR UZ ZAMAN/AFP via Getty Images)Buttler was forced to introduce Adil Rashid into the attack early and the leg-spinner promptly bowled Rony Talukdar, who was making his first Bangladesh appearance in almost eight years, with a beautiful flighted googly for 21. Jofra Archer then removed fellow opener Litton Das in the very next over for 12 when he lobbed a simple catch to mid-on.
However, the two breakthroughs did little to stem the flow of runs as Towhid Hridoy and Shanto smashed 10 and 17 off the next two overs, with Shanto's four consecutive fours off Mark Wood leaving his side needing just over a run a ball to win.
England did fight back though, with Hridoy holing out off Moeen for 24 after sharing an excellent 65-run partnership with Shanto, before Wood bowled Shanto with a delivery that kept low.
The defeat was branded a "thrashing" by former England captain Michael Atherton (Gareth Copley/Getty Images)Unfortunately for England, they did not have enough runs on the board to make the most of those breakthroughs as Shakib and Afif Hossain held their nerve to guide Bangladesh to victory with two overs to spare and put them 1-0 up in the three-match series.
Former England captain Michael Atherton branded the defeat a "thrashing", saying: "A very comfortable run-chase, surprisingly comfortable in the end. They got ahead of the rate, made it easy for themselves, and there was no panic - even when a couple of quick-fire wickets fell - because they had to experience of Shakib to come him and he guided them home very comfortably indeed. To win with two overs to spare is a thrashing."
While Buttler said England fell "short" of expectations with the bat, admitting: "I thought they finished their innings well with the ball. We were probably 20 short from where we wanted to be. We didn't quite make enough runs and couldn't save that in the field."
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