New Delhi: With four runs required off the last 22 balls of Thursday’s game, K.L. Rahul hooked Bangladesh fast bowler Tanzim Hasan Sakib’s delivery for a massive six to confirm India’s solid start to the 2025 edition of the ICC Champions Trophy, which kicked off on 19 February.
The script for India’s victory, however, had already been written by Shubman Gill, who batted with composure to score an unbeaten century, and Mohammed Shami, who picked yet another five-wicket haul in the ODI (One Day International) format.
Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto had won the toss and asked India to bowl first on a reportedly fresh pitch. Indian bowlers Shami and Harshit Rana managed to restrict Bangladesh to 2/2 in the first two overs. Shami went on to deliver a solid performance and had Bangladesh’s Soumya Sarkar and Mehidy Hasan Miraz edging behind Rahul and Gill, respectively, with the new ball.
Playing with only two frontline spinners, Indian captain Rohit Sharma had to introduce spin early, bringing Axar Patel into attack only in the ninth over. Patel picked the wickets of Tanzid Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim—the most experienced Bangladeshi batter—on consecutive deliveries. Had Sharma not dropped an easy catch on the next ball, Patel would have enjoyed an ODI hattrick in Dubai Thursday.
With half the team sent back to the pavilion within the mandatory powerplay, Bangladesh needed someone to lift its game. This came in the form of a marathon 154-run partnership between Towhid Hridoy and Jaker Ali, as the duo took calculated risks at frequent intervals to push the score upwards.
They denied India the opportunity for the next wicket till the 43rd over, when Shami returned with the second over of his last spell and dismissed Ali. According to The CricViz Analyst, it was the only fourth occasion in a decade when India failed to pick up a wicket between the 11th and 40th overs, with the 2023 ICC ODI World Cup final against Australia being the last such instance.
Rishad Hossain hit some lofty shots against Patel to provide Bangladesh with some momentum, but Hridoy, exhausted after a long time at the crease, just managed to score his maiden international hundred to rescue Bangladesh from a precarious situation of 35/5.
How India’s batters fared
Shami picked up where he had left off in the 2023 world cup, and so did India’s opening pair of Sharma and Gill. Gill took off with his signature short arm jab through midwicket and lofted drive over short extra cover, while Sharma mistimed his way to his first boundary.
Sharma then kept his foot on the accelerator, hitting Mustafizur Rehman’s deliveries for three boundaries to get India up and running in pursuit of 219 runs. The first two were hit through the off side by making room and the third was secured through a mistimed pull shot as the bowler attempted to change his angle and deny Sharma the width outside off stump.
When the left-armed Rehman returned with his next over, he made the mistake of providing Sharma room outside off stump, who then went on to score two boundaries. Gill also pulled out a ferocious pull shot off the front foot to dispatch Sakib’s delivery far back into the stadium’s second tier towards mid-wicket.
9️⃣8️⃣metres 😲
A breathtaking six from Shubman Gill.
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Sharma eventually perished in the process of continuous attack by the bowlers.
Virat Kohli crawled his way to 22 off 27 balls before losing his wicket yet again to a leg spinner—the fifth such instance in recent past. Shreyas Iyer could not clear the infield off Mustafizu Rehman.
India’s new number five, Patel, could not do much either, and the onus was then on Gill to bat through the entire course of the innings to deny Bangladesh any hope of revival in the game.
The Bangladesh team did not help its case either, missing an easy opportunity when Rahul was still new at the crease, as he quickly gained control of the situation.
Batting without any fuss at the other end, Gill earned his eighth ODI hundred, pulling out another massive six over mid-wicket with ease, which commentator Ravi Shastri rated as the shot of the game. For his unbeaten hundred, he was declared player of the match.
“At one point, there was pressure on us, and the message came from the dressing room—one batter had to bat through to the end. The first six gave me a lot of confidence, the second one got me closer to a hundred, so both were satisfying,” Gill said during the post-match presentation ceremony.
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