Rehan Ahmed takes wicket on ODI debut as England restrict Bangladesh to 246
Ahmed claimed a wicket with his last delivery of the day.
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Your support makes all the difference.Rehan Ahmed struck with his final ball after becoming the youngest male ODI cricketer for England, who have been set 247 to seal series clean sweep over Bangladesh at Chattogram.
Ahmed in December became England’s youngest Test cricketer and, now 18 years and 205 days old, had another milestone on Monday, eclipsing the record held by Ben Hollioake (19 years and 195 days).
It seemed the teenager was set for a fruitless debut in this dead rubber but he claimed a wicket with his last delivery of the day, taking a smart return catch off Mehidy Hasan Miraz, to finish with 10-0-62-1.
Fellow leg-spinner Adil Rashid bowled just half of his allotment but claimed a couple of important scalps while the returning Jofra Archer took the last three wickets as Bangladesh were all out for 246 in 48.5 overs.
It was a curious innings from Bangladesh and while there were half-centuries for Najmul Hossain Shanto (53), Mushfiqur Rahim (70) and Shakib Al Hasan (75), they showed little sense of urgency.
However, they had to rebuild from a position of 17 for two after winning the toss on another awkward pitch for batting.
Sam Curran sucked the air out of Bangladesh’s innings last time out and he struck in his first over again after Litton Das hung his bat out to one angled across him. Fellow opener Tamim Iqbal crafted a couple of openings but he was done by late swing from Curran and a leading edge squirted to point.
Curran conceded 14 in a frenetic second over, including five overthrows after a ricochet from Tamim’s bat wrongfooted Dawid Malan and Archer, but Bangladesh were relatively becalmed in the powerplay, racking up 45 dot balls.
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Mushfiqur was cagey early into his innings and edged Archer in between wicketkeeper and a wide slip but the former Bangladesh captain and Najmul settled into a rhythm and when Moeen Ali and Ahmed operated in tandem, they were offset by conventional and reverse sweeps.
The pair each got to fifty off 69 balls but a 98-run stand was ended when Najmul hesitated after being called through for a quick single and was short of his ground at the non-striker’s end, despite a desperate dive as Buttler’s throw was followed by Ahmed nonchalantly whipping off the bails.
Ahmed finished his first spell as a white-ball international with tidy if unspectacular figures of 6-0-33-0 and was replaced by Rashid, who demonstrated his pedigree by castling Mushfiqur on the sweep with a wrong’un.
Mahmudullah bludgeoned the leg-spinner back over his head for six but moments later his middle stump was rocked back after the ball snaked through the gap between bat and pad.
Shakib showed his class by twice clubbing Curran down the ground for back-to-back fours in a rare show of Bangladesh aggression, reaching his half-century off 55 balls, but Afif Hossain slapped the frugal Chris Woakes to short midwicket before Ahmed was rewarded for his toil at the last.
Ahmed ripped a googly that spun sharply off the pitch and Mehidy poked a low return catch back to the Leicestershire all-rounder.
Archer quickly polished off the innings, which included ending Shakib’s resistance as the all-rounder drove a slower ball down the ground only for Jason Roy to excellently cling on to a diving effort at long-on.