Bangladesh opener Litton Das scored the fastest half-century by a Bangladesh batter in T20Is on Wednesday. The right-handed batter made this record when during the team's second T20I of the three-match series against Ireland at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram.
After the home team were asked to bat first by Ireland, Das made the most of a dropped catch from George Dockrell after which the batter immediately responded with back-to-back boundaries with his innings just taking off from there. While he crossed the 50-run mark in just 80 balls, he made sure to bat deeper into the Bangladesh innings and ended up scoring 83 off 41 deliveries.
Das, on his way to this quickfire half-century, broke the record of Bangladesh batter Mohammad Ashraful who had scored a half-century off just 20 deliveries against West Indies way back in 2007 in the inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup in South Africa.
While the 28-year-old had come very close to breaking this record during the T20 World Cup in Australia last year in the match against India, on that occasion, he ended up reaching his fifty from 21 balls, thus taking a ball more than the record held by Ashraful.
Other than Das' innings, which was studded with 10 fours and three sixes, Rony Talukdar also scored 44 off 23 and captain Shakib Al Hasan scored 38 off 24 balls to ensure that the team post up a massive total of 202/3 in a match reduced to 17 overs per innings due to rain.
In response, Ireland could only manage 125/9 in their quota of 17 overs. After his innings with the bat, Shakib returned to produce figures of 5 for 22 in his 4 overs and was deservingly given the Player of the Match award.
With Bangladesh having already won the series opener, they have now taken an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series with one match to go.