Najmul Hossain hit 51 off 30 balls as Bangladesh kept their spirits up to beat world champions England by six wickets in the first Twenty20 international at Chittagong on Thursday.
Najmul’s third T20I fifty guided Bangladesh to 158-4 in 18 overs after the hosts held England to 156-6, despite skipper Jos Buttler making 67 from 42 balls.
“Bangladesh ended the innings really well. We were in a position to really kick in and launch at the end, but we couldn’t get away,” said Buttler.
“We were probably 20 short with our score and we had to chase a little bit in the field.”
Buttler scored 80 runs with Phil Salt in their opening partnership after the hosts brought England to bat first.
But England collapsed after Buttler’s fourth wicket dismissal, managing just 21 runs in the last five overs.
Pace bowler Hasan Mahmud, forcing Buttler to fly out at long-on in the 16th over, finished 2-26.
Bangladesh got off to a positive start as Rony Talukdar (21) and Liton Das (12) scored 33 in their opening partnership.
Adil Rashid bowed Talukdar to break the stand and Jofra Archer soon removed Liton.
But Najmul and debutant Towhid Hridoy added 65 runs for the third wicket to put Bangladesh in control.
Moeen Ali ended their partnership by losing Hridoy for 24 after Najmul raced to his fifty off 27 balls.
Mark Wood bowled Najmul for some petty revenge after conceding fours to the southpaw on each of his first four balls.
Shakib Al Hasan denied England further momentum and drove home victory by a Chris Jordan barrier to 34 not to be missed.
Afif Hossain was not out for 15 at the other end as the duo added 46 runs in their unbroken fifth wicket stand.
“The way we approached the game was fantastic, we couldn’t ask for more from our team,” said Bangladesh skipper Shakib.
“When we were bowling, we were under the pump, but nobody panicked.”
Salt was the first England batsman to be dismissed after making 38 off 35 balls when he connected the underside of a delivery from Nasum Ahmed.
Nasum was unlucky not to eject Buttler on 19 when Shakib missed a fly fly halfway through.
Shakib compensated by removing Dawid Malan for four before Mustafizur Rahman bowled Ben Duckett for 20.
This was England’s first T20 since winning the World Cup in Australia in November.
The hosts and England had previously played only one T20I against each other, which England won by eight wickets at the 2021 World Cup.
The remaining two games of the series will be played in Dhaka on March 12-14.
(This story has not been edited by DailyExpertNews staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)
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