Men in Blue beat Bangladesh by six wickets in opening clash

DUBAI: Shubman Gill continued his prolific run in ODIS, scoring an unbeaten 101 (129b, 9x4, 2x6) as India opened its Champions Trophy campaign with a six-wicket win over Bangladesh here on Thursday. Set to chase 229, India got there with 21 balls to spare. KL Rahul remained not out on 41 (47b, 1x4, 2x6) as he put on 87 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket with Gill.

India got off to a confident start with captain Rohit Sharma scoring a breezy 41 (36b, 7x4) before getting out with the team score on 69. Gill went about his task sedately and strung together useful partnerships, ensuring that he remained till the end.

Earlier, a cramping Towhid Hridoy made a courageous maiden ODI hundred but led by five-wicket man Mohammed Shami India managed to keep Bangladesh to an underwhelming 228.

Hridoy (100, 118b, 6x4, 2x6) and an equally gutsy Jaker Ali (68, 114b, 4x4) added 154 for a doughty sixth-wicket stand to drag Bangladesh back from the depth of 35 for five after it elected to bat.

Shami also eased a lot of worries over the absence of injured pace ace Jasprit Bumrah with a five for 53 effort, and during the spell he also became the fastest Indian bowler to reach 200 ODI wickets.

Hridoy’s innings was an example of how to construct an innings yet maintain a healthy run-rate as he reached the milestone in just 114 balls.

He and Ali also showed excellent composure under pressure.

However, both the Bangladesh batters benefited from the largesse of Indian fielders, as Ali was dropped on zero off the first ball he faced off left-arm spinner Axar Patel (2/43).

It also robbed Axar of a hat-trick after he dismissed Mushfiqur Rahim and Tanzid Hasan off successive deliveries.

KL Rahul, who was sharp behind the stumps, floored a stumping chance to give the second reprieve for Hridoy.

But those moments of slip-ups should not take anything away from the way Indian bowlers, especially Shami, used the new ball on a rather slow but smooth pitch.

Shami did not disappoint on the big stage and took the wicket of opener Soumya Sarkar in the first over itself.

He did not take much time to grab his second wicket when he ousted Mehdy Hasan Miraz — caught brilliantly by Shubman Gill in the slips.

The Bengal pacer later returned to break the determined stand between Hridoy and Ali, dismissing the latter.

Brief scores: Bangladesh 228 in 49.4 overs (T Hridoy 100, J Ali 68, Md. Shami 5/53, H Rana 3/31) lost to India 231/4 in 46.3 overs (S Gill 101*, KL Rahul 41*, R Sharma 41)

HIGHLIGHTS

2 - In terms of matches played, Mohammed Shami is joint-second fastest to 200 wickets with Saqlain Mushtaq on 104 ODIs, while Starc took his 200 in his 102nd ODI

261 Innings in which Rohit Sharma completed 11,000 ODI runs. He is the second quickest among the ten batters to reach that milestone, behind Virat Kohli

156 Catches taken by Virat Kohli in ODIs, the joint most as a fielder for India, equal with Mohammad Azharuddin

10 Catches dropped by Rohit Sharma in ODIs since the start of 2023

5476 Balls bowled by Kuldeep Yadav in ODIs before bowling his first front-foot no-ball