In-form Shubman Gill made an unbeaten 101 to anchor India’s nervy chase in a six-wicket win over Bangladesh as the two teams began their Champions Trophy campaign in Dubai.
Needing a tricky 229 for victory on a seemingly tough pitch on Thursday, India rode on Gill’s second successive one-day international [ODI] ton to achieve their target with 21 balls to spare.
Title favourites India are playing their matches in the 50-over tournament at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium after refusing to tour host nation Pakistan over political tensions.
Pace spearhead Mohammed Shami set up victory with figures of 5-53, helping reduce Bangladesh to 35-5 in his opening spell before they recovered to manage 228 all out after electing to bat first.
“With the bat, yes we were under pressure a bit,” India captain Rohit Sharma said. “But when you are playing a game like this, you are bound to be under pressure.”
Bangladesh won the toss and opted to bat at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, but was in trouble almost immediately.
Towhid Hridoy, who made 100 – his first ODI ton, and Jaker Ali (68) put on 154 runs for the sixth wicket to lift the total from the sticky start, albeit with some assistance from sloppy Indian fielding including two dropped catches.
In reply, India started strongly as Rohit Sharma and Gill got going with regular boundaries. Rohit became just the 10th batsman – and fourth from India – to surpass 11,000 ODI runs.
The India captain made 41 before he was dismissed by fast bowler Taskin Ahmed and Virat Kohli walked in to loud cheers from the crowd at a largely empty stadium.
Kohli took 10 balls to get his first run and made 22 before mistiming a late cut to backward point off leg-spinner Rishad Hossain.
India lost two more wickets after Rishad and Mustafizur Rahman removed Axar Patel and Shreyas Iyer to put India in trouble at 144-4.
But vice-captain Gill, who was player of the series with 259 runs in India’s 3-0 ODI sweep of England last week, kept calm as he and KL Rahul took the team home in an unbeaten 87-run stand.
Rahul finished 41 not out but was dropped early in his innings by Jaker at deep mid-wicket and India never faltered after that with Gill reaching his eighth ODI century.
Shami was the bowling hero with his sixth five-wicket haul in 104 ODIs, stepping up in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, who was ruled out of the tournament due to a back injury.
Shami struck in the first over to get left-handed Soumya Sarkar caught behind for a five-ball duck.
Left-arm spinner Axar struck twice in two balls to send Tanzid Hasan (25) and Mushfiqur Rahim, for a duck, trudging back to the pavilion.
It could have been six down had Rohit not dropped a catch at first slip, denying Axar a hat-trick and handing Jaker a reprieve on nought.
Jaker, who survived another chance on 24 when wicketkeeper Rahul missed a stumping, and Towhid, dropped on 23 by Hardik Pandya at mid-off, combined to thwart the Indian charge.
Jaker fell to Shami but Towhid kept up the fight until his 118-ball knock ended with six fours and two sixes.
“In 10 overs, we lost five wickets,” Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto reflected. “It’s very hard to recover and so it cost us the game.”
Shanto was also critical of his team’s effort in the field. “We made some mistakes on the field, a couple of dropped catches and a few runouts. If we could take those catches, it could be different,” he said.
India next play archrivals Pakistan in a Sunday blockbuster, while Bangladesh face New Zealand – who opened their tournament by beating Pakistan on Wednesday – in Rawalpindi on Monday.
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