India made a winning debut in the tournament by defeating Bangladesh by six wickets in their first match of the Champions Trophy. Fast bowler Mohammed Shami’s deadly bowling and vice -captain Shubman Gill’s best century played an important role in this victory. Indian bowlers led by Shami bowled Bangladesh for 228 runs in 49.4 overs. Chasing the target, India defeated Gill’s unbeaten 101 runs (with the help of nine fours and two sixes in 129 balls), losing four wickets in 46.3 overs, scoring 231 runs.
Tauheed Hrdoy’s struggle and Gill’s answer
For Bangladesh, Tauheed Hrdoy scored a brilliant century and took the team to a respectable score. At the same time, Shubman Gill won the team by scoring the eighth century of his ODI career. Gill finally got KL Rahul’s best support, who played an unbeaten innings of 41 runs. Among the Bangladesh bowlers, Rishad Hussain took two wickets, while Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman took one wicket each.
India’s innings: Gill-Rahul’s strong partnership
Captains Rohit Sharma and Shubman Gill gave a concrete start to the Indian team chasing the target. Although Rohit was dismissed by scoring 41 runs, but during this time he completed 11,000 runs in ODIs and scored another record. After him, Virat Kohli (22), Shreyas Iyer (15) and Akshar Patel (8) also could not contribute much. After this, KL Rahul and Gill gave the team victory for the fifth wicket to win the team by making an unavoidable partnership of 87 runs. Rahul remained unbeaten on 47 balls with the help of a four and two sixes in 47 balls.
Historical century of Shubman Gill
Gill batted brilliantly in this match and completed the eighth century of his ODI career in only 51 innings. With this, he became the batsman to achieve this feat in the lowest innings for India, he broke the record of Shikhar Dhawan (57 innings).
In addition, Gill became India’s second and total fifth batsman to score a century against Bangladesh in the Champions Trophy. Before him, Joe Root, Rohit Sharma, Upul Tharanga and Chris Gayle have done this feat. However, this was the fourth fourth slowest century for India in ODIs after 2019, which Gill completed in 125 balls.
Great partnership of Hrdoy-Jakir
Bangladesh’s innings started very poorly and the team lost five wickets for 35 runs. But the brilliant partnership of Tauheed Hrdoy and Zakir Ali brought the team out of crisis. Both added 154 runs for the sixth wicket, the biggest partnership for the sixth or lower order wickets in the Champions Trophy. Hrdoy scored 100 runs in 118 balls with the help of six fours and two sixes.
Another record of Mohammed Shami’s name
Indian fast bowler Mohammed Shami performed brilliantly in this match and became the fastest bowler to complete 200 wickets in ODI cricket. He broke this achievement in only 5126 balls and broke the record of Australia’s Mitchell Starc (5240 balls).
With this magnificent victory of India, the team has made a strong start of their campaign in the Champions Trophy. Gill and Shami’s performance showed how ready the team is for the title.
