Shami’s fifer, Gill’s ton leads India to six-wicket win over Bangladesh

Blitz Bureau
NEW DELHI: Shubman Gill, the newly crowned top-ranked men’s ODI batter, hit a gritty eighth century in the 50-over format and led India to a six-wicket victory over Bangladesh to kick off their 2025 ICC Champions Trophy campaign on a high at the Dubai International Stadium on February 21.
After Mohammed Shami’s 5-53 helped India bowl out Bangladesh for 228, making him the fastest Indian bowler to pick 200 ODI wickets, Gill took his time before grinding it hard on a sluggish pitch and amidst the pressure of wickets falling around to hit an unbeaten 101 off 129 balls, laced with nine fours and two sixes.
Gill got good support from captain Rohit Sharma, who made a quick 41, and later from KL Rahul, who fought through a tricky period to hit a very calm and composed 41 off 47 balls, thus showing why he’s preferred ahead of Rishabh Pant for the wicketkeeper-batter slot, as India finished off the chase with 21 balls to spare.
Though Gill hit his slowest ODI hundred, it was worth its weight in gold for India to go into the clash against Pakistan with more confidence, after being tested thoroughly by Bangladesh’s bowlers. For Bangladesh, who lost five wickets in power-play, their only solace was Towhid Hridoy’s fighting century and his 154-run stand with Jaker Ali, who hit 68.
Shami provided the first breakthrough for India when he got the ball to seam in and take the inside edge of Soumya Sarkar’s attempted drive, with KL Rahul taking a simple catch. One brought two for India as Najmul Hossain Shanto couldn’t keep his drive down and was caught at short cover off Harshit.
Though Tanzid Hasan hit three excellent boundaries, India continued to chip away as Mehidy Hasan Miraz cut hard off Shami but was caught by the first slip taking it over his head. Tanzid’s impressive stay ended when he looked to play Axar for the turn but gave a thick outside edge behind to Rahul.
Axar, though, got the very next delivery to turn and extract Mushfiqur Rahim’s outside edge and have him caught by Rahul for a golden duck. Axar could have got his hat-trick if Rohit Sharma didn’t drop a sitter of Jaker at first slip. From there, Jaker and Hridoy were patient in resurrecting the innings – taking their time to rotate the strike and hitting boundaries whenever a loose ball – either a short ball or anything outside off-stump came their way.
They were also helped by some reprieves – Hridoy was dropped on 23 by Hardik Pandya at mid-off, while Jaker survived a stumping off Ravindra Jadeja as KL Rahul failed to collect the ball when he was on 24.
Jaker broke a 63-ball boundary drought by unfurling a lovely on-drive off Harshit for four, before sweeping Kuldeep Yadav for another boundary and taking a brace off him to get his second ODI fifty off 87 balls. In the next over, Hridoy brought up his fifty in 85 balls with a thick edge off Jadeja going for four.