Champions Trophy: Gill ton powers India to win over Bangladesh – Sport

In-form Shubman Gill made an unbeaten 101 to anchor India’s chase in a six-wicket win over Bangladesh as the two teams began their Champions Trophy campaign on Thursday in Dubai.

Needing a tricky 229 for victory on a seemingly tough pitch, India rode on Gill’s second successive 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 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.

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, albeit with some assistance from sloppy Indian fielding including two dropped catches.

Facing cramps later in his knock, Towhid raised his hundred and acknowledged the cheers of the fans at a largely empty stadium before he departed and the innings folded in 49.4 overs.

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 mis-timing 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.

India made a heavy weather of the modest chase but opener Shubman Gill, who made 101 not out, helped them reach the target with 21 balls to spare.

India’s pace spearhead Mohammed Shami, leading India’s pace attack in the absence of the injured Jasprit Bumrah, returned figures of 5-53 after Bangladesh elected to bat first but lost half their side in the ninth over.

Shami struck in the first over to get left-handed Soumya Sarkar caught behind for a five-ball duck.

Harshit Rana combined from the other end to get skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto caught at cover-point for a duck with Virat Kohli taking a good catch over his head.

Mehidy Hasan Miraz could not last long as Shami struck for the second time as Gill took a sharp catch at slip.

Shami’s return from injury in India’s white-ball triumph over England at home boosted the team in the absence of Jasprit Bumrah, who was ruled out of this eight-nation tournament with a back injury.

Bangladesh lost half their side in the ninth over when left-arm spinner Axar Patel struck twice in two balls to send Tanzid Hasan, for 25, and Mushfiqur Rahim, for zero, trudging back to the pavilion.

It could have been six down and Axar with a hat-trick had skipper Rohit Sharma not dropped a catch at first slip to hand Jaker Ali a reprieve on nought. Rohit slapped his hand on the grass and stood up with a wry smile to apologise to Axar for the slip.

Jaker, who survived another reprieve on 24 when wicketkeeper KL Rahul missed a stumping, and Towhid, who was dropped on 23 by Hardik Pandya at mid-off, combined to thwart the Indian charge. Jaker reached his second ODI fifty and Towhid raised his half-ton with a boundary.

Jaker finally fell to Shami but Towhid kept up the fight until his 118-ball knock ended with six fours and two sixes.

Bangladesh skipper Shanto won the toss and chose to bat against India, who are playing their matches in the 50-over tournament in the United Arab Emirates after refusing to tour hosts Pakistan over political tensions.

Bangladesh are underdogs in Group A, which also includes Pakistan and New Zealand. India remain title favourites.

Bangladesh named three seamers, led by young pace sensation Nahid Rana, and two spinners.

India, captained by Rohit Sharma, made two changes from their last ODI win against England in a 3-0 sweep last week.

Shami and left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja came in for Arshdeep Singh and Varun Chakravarthy.

New Zealand beat Pakistan by 60 runs in Karachi on Wednesday to open the tournament.

Bangladesh: Tanzid Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Najmul Hossain Shanto (capt), Towhid Hridoy, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Jaker Ali, Rishad Hossain, Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman.

India: Rohit Sharma (capt), Shubman Gill, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer, KL Rahul(wk), Hardik Pandya, Axar Patel, Ravindra Jadeja, Harshit Rana, Mohammed Shami, Kuldeep Yadav.

Umpires: Adrian Holdstock (RSA), Paul Reiffel (AUS) TV

Umpire: Richard Illingworth (ENG)

Match Referee: David Boon (AUS)