England stumbled to a 16-run defeat in the final T20 as Bangladesh completed a 3-0 series clean sweep. Chasing 159, England were in control at 100-1 as Jos Buttler and Dawid Malan added 95 for the second wicket in Mirpur.But Bangladesh fought back when the pair fell in consecutive balls in the 14th over. The pressure built on England's middle order and they finished on 142-6 after losing 5-28 in the space of 35 balls. Bangladesh's 158-2 was set up by opener Litton Das' explosive 73 from 57 balls and Najmul Hossain Shanto's 47 not out from 36. Ben Duckett dropped Das on 51 and Rehan Ahmed dropped a simple chance from Rony Talukdar on 17.

But England salvaged some pride at the death as Sam Curran and Chris Jordan restricted Bangladesh's scoring, conceding only 27 runs from the final five overs. Despite losing Phil Salt for a duck in the first over, Malan and Buttler led an impressive counter-attack on a slow, wearing pitch. But Mustafizur Rahman changed the game when Malan was caught behind for 53 and Buttler was sensationally run out for 40 by Mehidy Hasan. The series concludes England's winter and the white-ball side will not be in action again until August.

It has been a difficult series for England's batters as captain Buttler and coach Matthew Mott have attempted to juggle a bowler-heavy squad because of absences. England are without key batters from their T20 World Cup triumph last year in Ben Stokes, Alex Hales, Harry Brook and Liam Livingstone.

Bangladesh comfortably chased 157 in the first game before England crawled to 117 in the second, and in Mirpur it was a similar situation as the hosts handled the conditions better. Das capitalised on England's sloppy fielding to hit 10 fours and a six but Bangladesh also ran smartly, constantly pushing for a second run and scampering singles when boundaries were not on offer. But England faltered even when the run-rate was under control. Even after Malan and Buttler fell in succession, the equation was an achievable 59 from 40 balls.

Credit : Independent News Pakistan-INP