Bangladesh falter to miss out on clean sweep

A mishap in the performance of the Bangladesh batters saw them concede the third Twenty20 International of their three-match series against Ireland in Chattogram on Friday as they lost by seven wickets, thus missing out on consecutive clean sheets.

Only Shamim Hossain could make a meaningful contribution with the bat as the youngster scored his maiden T20I fifty, and that disappointing batting card, where only four batters went into double figures, saw Bangladesh post only 124.

And then, they were blown away by a brilliant knock from Paul Stirling as the Irish skipper scored 77 runs off 41 balls before falling to debutant leg-spinner Rishad Hossain but the game was more than over by then as Ireland went on to seal the win with six overs in hand, which is also their first win in Bangladesh.

“We didn’t bat well, kept losing wickets. But that happens with the way we want to play our cricket. Don’t want to change our approach. If we want to be a very good team, that’s the way we have to play. We might fail in some games. Today wasn’t our day but credit to Ireland,” Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan said.

“This was set up by the bowlers. All five bowlers deserve this (Player of the Match) award. Full credit to them. To come back from what we’ve been through in the last two weeks. Shows the character. We’ll only improve the more we play,” Stirling was adamant on handing praise to others rather than himself.

In the first two matches, it was the openers who brought Bangladesh great starts, which did not happen on Friday. Both Liton Das (5) and Rony Talukdar (14), alongside Najmul Hossain Shanto (4) and Shakib Al Hasan (6), were gone inside the powerplay and by the time the 10th over came, the Tigers were seven-down.

From there, it was an uphill battle for Shamim as the youngster tried to put together a decent score but his fifty could only take the team to 124 as none of the tailenders could stick around, with Shamim getting out in the final over for a well-made 51 off 42 balls.

In reply, Stirling was on the front foot from the start, and despite Taskin Ahmed, the Player of the Series, removing Ross Adair (7) and Shoriful Islam getting rid of Lorcan Tucker (6), the match never turned into a competition as the Ireland skipper added 68 runs off just 42 balls for the third wicket with Harry Tector (14*) to kill the tie.

After Stirling’s dismissal, Tector and Curtis Campher (16*) took the Irish to their first win on Bangladesh soil.