Bangladesh-Ireland Series
Bangladesh fail to clean-sweep Ireland in T20 series
|| CF DESK ||
Ireland broke Bangladesh’s winning streak as the visitors take the third and last game of the three match T20I series by seven wickets at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium on Friday.
Bangladesh failed to taste whitewash in consecutive series but they sealed the series 2-1 after clean sweeping World Champions England 3-0.
In place of Andrew Balbirnie, stand in skipper Paul Stirling scored 77 as the visitors completed the 125-run total in 14 overs after dismissing the hosts for 124 in 19.1 overs.
The veteran Irish batter eventually lost his wicket to Rishad Hossain, a rookie leg-spinner, but not before hitting 10 fours and four sixes.
The two completed ODIs and the first two T20Is were all easily won by Bangladesh but Stirling's 22nd T20I fifty helped Ireland end a four-match winning streak of Tigers.
Ross Adair (7) and Lorcan Tucker (4) were the other batters out, to Taskin Ahmed and Shoriful Islam respectively.
Earlier, Shamim Hossain's maiden T20I fifty guided Bangladesh to set Ireland 125 run target. Bangladesh could never recover from being slummed to 41-5 after opting to bat first.
PHOTO: Shamim Hossain, BCB
Irish bowlers crushed the top orders within the first powerplay, only Rony Talukdar (14) could cross double digits.
Bangladesh could never recover from being slummed to 41-5 after opting to bat first. Irish bowlers crushed the top orders within the first powerplay, only Rony Talukdar (14) could cross double digits.
Bangladesh kept losing wickets at regular intervals, while Shamim Hossain held his nerve and top-scored with 51 runs which came from 42 balls with five boundaries and two sixes.
Shamim was supported by Towhid (12) and Nasum Ahmed (13) in the middle.
Mark Adair was the pick of the bowling attack taking three wickets for Ireland.