Bangladesh overcame Ireland and took a 1-0 lead in the three-match T20I series in Chattogram due to the play of Taskin Ahmed, Rony Talukdar, and Litton Das. The rain-affected game was won by the home team by 22 runs.
Together with Litton Das, who scored 47 runs, Talukdar scored a quick 67, adding 91 runs for the opening stand. On a flat pitch, the Ireland bowlers struggled to stop the boundary flow.
However, due to the rain, the play was stopped between 3:37 and 5:40 PM local time. The updated target for the visitors was 104 runs, which they had to reach in eight overs.
At first, they had a strong performance, but Taskin, Hasan Mahmud, and Shakib Al Hasan made sure Bangladesh did not lose this match.
Stand-in captain Paul Stirling and Ross Adair launched Ireland’s chasing at 13 runs per over. In their first two overs, which were bowled by Nasum Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman, they scored 32 runs. Bangladesh, however, immediately managed to enter the game.
After responding with three dot balls, Mahmud yorked Adair for 13. The momentum Bangladesh had gained was then doubled by Taskin, who took three wickets in his first over.
Before bowling Stirling out for 17 with the fourth delivery, he dispatched Lorcan Tucker with the opening ball. The following ball, George Dockrell was caught by third-man for a duck.
With 16 runs off Hasan Mahmud in the fifth over, Ireland recovered. In the over, Harry Tector scored three fours, top-edging one delivery while hitting the other two cleanly for four.
Following that up with an outstanding sixth over that cost just five runs, Shakib helped Bangladesh get back into the match.
The final over was then bowled by Mustafizur Rahman, who combined cutters and full-length balls that Tector and Gareth Delany were unable to quite hit.
It came down to 31 from the final over in the equation. To complete his four-wicket haul, Taskin dismissed Tector with the first delivery, allowing just nine runs to be scored off the last over.
By hitting Tector for a six over long-on in the first over of an 11-run innings, Litton made his intentions clear. Before Graham Hume’s small improvement in the third over, Talukdar hit Adair for his first six runs in the 14-run second over.
In his first over since making his international cricket comeback following a knee injury last year, Craig Young scored 16 runs. He was hit for a six over midwicket by Litton before being picked out for a four over wide long-off.
Before Adair was hit for 20 runs in the sixth over, leg spinner Delany gave up just one six in the fifth over. Talukdar crushed Adair for a six over long-off and three additional fours after Litton came dangerously close to being caught at cover.
Bangladesh’s highest powerplay score in T20Is, 81 for no loss, was achieved due to the big over. Their previous record was a 76-4 victory over New Zealand in Dhaka in 2013.
When Litton was caught at mid-off in the eighth over for 47 runs off 23 balls and seven boundaries, including three sixes, Young had removed him. The 91-run partnership is now the biggest first-wicket stand for Bangladesh.
