Shakib takes five as Bangladesh beat Ireland by 77 runs to seal T20 series

29 March 2023

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UNB, Dhaka :

Bangladesh beat Ireland by 77 runs in the second T20 Wednesday in Chattogram to win the series with one match to spare.

Put in to bat first, the Tigers Bangladesh scored 202 for three after the match was reduced to 17 overs per side due to rain.

Litton Das and Rony Talukdar scored 124 runs in just 9.2 overs in the first wicket stand. Litton smashed 10 fours and three sixes to score 83 off 41 balls before falling to Ben White in the 12th over.

The wicketkeeper-batter Litton hit fifty off 18 balls, the fastest fifty by a Bangladeshi in T20s. He broke the 20-ball fifty record of Mohammad Ashraful in 2007.

Talukdar, too, played a free-flowing knock of 44 off 23 balls before being caught by Mark Adair off Ben White.

After that, skipper Shakib Al Hasan and Towhid Hridoy continued to pile on the runs. Shakib struck three fours and three sixes in his unbeaten knock of 38 off 24 balls.

For Ireland, White was the pick of the bowlers, taking two wickets for 28 runs in his four overs. Adair also managed to pick up a wicket but conceded 52 runs in his four overs.

Chasing 203, Ireland failed to offer any resistance against Bangladesh's quality attack. The in-form Taskin Ahmed picked up the wicket of Ireland captain Paul Stirling off the first ball of the innings.

After Taskin's first wicket, Shakib bagged five wickets in his first three overs and returned the figures of five for 22 in four overs. With this, he became the highest wicket-taker in T20s, surpassing New Zealand's Tim Southee.

Shakib now has 136 wickets in the format in 114 matches while Southee has 134 in 107 matches. After Shakib's bowling spell, Taskin took two more wickets and took three for 27 in four overs.

Curtis Campher hit an unbeaten fifty off 30 balls for Ireland.

Both teams will now compete in the solitary Test in Dhaka, starting on April 4.