Dubai, Feb 21: Shubman Gill continued his prolific run in ODIS, scoring an unbeaten 101 (129b, 9×4, 2×6) as India opened its Champions Trophy campaign with a six-wicket win over Bangladesh in Dubai on Thursday. Set to chase 229, India got there with 21 balls to spare. KL Rahul remained not out on 41 (47b, 1×4, 2×6) as he put on 87 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket with Gill.India got off to a confident start with captain Rohit Sharma scoring a breezy 41 (36b, 7×4) before getting out with the team score on 69. Gill went about his task sedately and strung together useful partnerships, ensuring that he remained till the end.
Earlier, a cramping Towhid Hridoy made a courageous maiden ODI hundred but led by five-wicket man Mohammed Shami India managed to keep Bangladesh to an underwhelming 228.
Rohit Sharma, India captain, said Before you come and play you got to be confident. As the game goes on there are different emotions that come through. But there is a lot of experience in that dressing room. Gill and KL played really well. Very hard to say that (on pitch playing slow) after just one game. You play the conditions and try and think about what you do. We assessed the conditions well as a team. You are bound to be under pressure in a tournament like Champions Trophy. Very happy for him (Shami), long time waiting. We know what he brings to us. We need guys like him to stand up when we need. Gill, we know the class that he has, Shouldn’t surprise anyone. It was good to see him bat till the end. May take him (Axar) for dinner tomorrow (smiles). No, that was an easy catch, I should have taken that catch with the standards I have set for myself. But I do know these things are bound to happen. Credit to Hridoy and Jaker, they stitched a nice partnership. (Asked if he expects the pitch to play similar in the next game as well) Not sure, but it will be pretty much similar I guess. I am not the curator here to tell you how exactly it will play but looks like it with the way the games have been played here.
Najmul Hossain Shanto,Bangladesh captain, said, Losing five wickets in the powerplay cost us the game. I think so. Hridoy and Jaker batted brilliantly but we still made mistakes on the field. Dropped catches and a few run-outs missed, the result could have been different. Impressive batting from Hridoy and Jaker against their spinners. I hope they will continue doing the same. I don’t think so (if he thought the team needed an extra spinner in the XI). If we got wickets with the new ball it could have been different. We have played Pakistan there recently and I am sure boys will adapt to conditions in Rawalpindi.
Shubman Gill, PoTM, said, Definitely one of my most satisfying innings that I have played and my first century in ICC events. Very satisfying and very happy with the way I performed. When me and Rohit bhai went out there, we thought cutting the ball wasn’t easy because the balls which were outside the off-stump weren’t coming onto the bat that nicely. So I thought of using my feet to even the fast bowlers and tried to go over the circle. When the spinners came on, me and Virat bhai were talking in the middle that it’s not easy to score singles off the front foot, so we’ll try to score singles off the back foot. And it’s not easy to hit down the ground, so we just keep rotating the strike. At one point, there was a bit of pressure on us. The message was sent from outside that I have to try to bat till the end and that’s what I tried to do. (On his two sixes) The first one gave me a lot of confidence and the second one helped me come closer to my hundred, so both were very satisfying.