Gill and Shami shine as India beat Bangladesh in opener

Mohammad Abdullah, Senior Sports Reporter

Shubman Gill smashed an unbeaten century after Mohammad Shami took a fifer to help India set up a six-wicket victory against Bangladesh in their first match of the Champions Trophy in Dubai on Thursday.

Chasing a target of 229, India crossed the line with 3.3 overs to spare. Despite a heroic effort by Jakir Ali and Towhid Hirdoy, who smashed the maiden century of his career, Bangladesh failed to put enough runs on the board to defend. They did make some inroads through their bowlers but failed to thwart India from achieving the target.

Rohit Sharma and Gill added 69 runs for the first wicket to set the tone for a successful chase. Gill carried his form of the preceding series against England, scoring his eighth century in ODIs to guide India to win.  Rohit reached the personal milestone of 11000 runs in ODIs.

After the departure of Rohit, Kohli and Gill kept the chase alive with a 43-run partnership before Rishad Hossain sent the former back. India lost two wickets of Shreyas Iyer and Axer Patel in quick succession to be reduced to 134/4. 

Gill stood firm at the one end to ensure India breach Bangladesh's total of 228. He added an unbeaten 96 runs for the fifth wicket with Rahul to propel India to victory.

Earlier, Hirdoy and Jakir led the fightback after Bangladesh were written off as early as in the seventh over of the first innings. Bangladesh got off to a disastrous start, losing two wickets with just two runs on the board.

After being invited to field first, Shami exploited the conditions and gave India a fiery start. It was Shami, who triggered the collapse with the dismissal of Soumya Sarkar as Bangladesh started losing the wickets in quick succession. They were reeling at 35/5 and looked set to be all out under 100.

Axar Patel sent back Tanzid and Mushfiqur Rahim off successive deliveries to make it 35/5. Patel was on a hat-trick and all eyes were glued to the match across the globe in anticipation and excitement with Jakir on the strike.

Excitement was building up as Patel ran to bowl with four fielders in close position. The ball took the leading edge and went to Rohit, who failed to get hold of it.

Towhid Hridoy plays a shot as wicketkeeper KL Rahul (C) watches during the ICC Champions Trophy match at the Dubai International Stadium on Thursday. AFP

That dropped catch scripted a new chapter and changed the complexion of the game. Jakir survived the hat-trick ball. After that there was no looking back.

Both Jakir and Towhid knuckled down to mend the damage. They played resolutely and kept the Indian bowlers at bay. Both the batsmen played sensibly and kept the scoreboard ticking with singles and doubles, hitting occasional boundaries to maintain the run rate.

Though, there was some element of luck as well. They got some reprieves from a complacent Indian team.  After being dropped for a naught, Jakir, on 24, was lucky again as KL Rahul missed a stumping off Jadeja to give him the second reprieve.

He capitalise on the missed chances and added 154 runs for the sixth wicket with Towhid, who also got a reprieve when batting on 24 as he was put down by Hardik Pandya off Kuldeep.

Jaker reached his fifty in 87 balls with a couple while Towhid brought up his half-century with a boundary off Jadeja in 85 deliveries. They batted resolutely and frustrated the Indian bowlers.

Shami returned to break the dangerous-looking partnership for his third scalp of the match but they had already put enough runs on the scoreboard to save Bangladesh blushes.

 Jakir was caught by Kohli at long on while trying to slog Shami for a six as India heaved a sigh of relief after having spurned three chances before. Jakir’s watchful innings featured four boundaries.

After the dismissal of Jakir, Hirdoy added another 35 runs with Rishad Hossain to take the score to 224/7. Rishad played a cameo of 18 off 12 balls.

Hirdoy completed his maiden century with a single. Hirdoy’s knock was studded with six fours and two hits over the fence. Shami rattled the stumps of Tanzim Hasan Shakib and had Taskin Ahmed caught by Iyer to complete his five-wicket haul before Harshat dismissed Hirdoy to return with a figure of 31/3.

Earlier, Shami was back in the groove from the first over. It did not look like that he made a return to international cricket after a long layoff only a few days ago.

He gave India first breakthrough with the dismissal of Sarkar, who edged an incoming delivery straight into the gloves of wicket-keeper KL Rahul.

Harshit Rana followed the suit and got rid of skipper Najmul Hassan Shanto for a duck. Shanto played away from the body in a bid to drive an outswinger through the covers which landed in the hands of Kohli.

Bangladesh lost two wickets with just two runs on the board. Tanzid Hasan countered the attack and hit two boundaries off Shami to ease the pressure. He added 24 runs for the third wicket with Mehidy Hasan Miraz before Shami broke the partnership to push them on the backfoot again.

 There was an abject surrender by Bangladeshi batsmen as they failed to put up any fight against a disciplined Indian bowling, which was assisted by Shanto’s decision of batting first.