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Gill ton helps India ace tricky chase after Shami five-for
Shubman Gill dug deep for his slowest ODI hundred and India’s slowest in the last six years to see India through a tricky chase of 229 that must have brought back memories of their 3-0 series defeat to Sri Lanka last on similarly slow tracks. Despite a quick 69-run opening stand, India were tested by a target that was kept by Mohammed Shami, who took his sixth ODI five-for and became the quickest man to 200 ODI wickets in terms of balls bowled to get there.
Both sides will rue missed opportunities in their Champions Trophy opener. Bangladesh won a crucial toss on a tired pitch with no dew expected to make chasing easier, but they got off to such a poor start that they needed three dropped catches and a superlative fighting hundred from Towhid Hridoy to stay in the contest. India had Bangladesh down at 35 for 5, Axar Patel was on a hat-trick, and Rohit Sharma dropped a sitter followed by two lives for the record-breaking sixth-wicket stand. It allowed Bangladesh to get to a target that denied India a net-run-rate boost, which can prove crucial if they happen to lose one of their three matches.
India will still consider this a banana peel survived having misread the conditions and decided to field first should they have won the toss. On a slow pitch with no assistance for the quicks, they were gifted early wickets through some indiscriminate hitting. Bangladesh possibly felt the new ball was the best time to bat: they didn’t wait for a bad ball on offer and kept losing wickets. The first three fell to ambitious shots to plain good-length bowling with little seam.
Bangladesh were 35 for 3 when Axar was introduced in the ninth over. Tanzid Hasan, the only batter who had looked comfortable, played him for the turn and paid the ultimate price with an outside edge. Mushfiqur Rahim, arguably batting too late at No. 6 especially in the absence of the injured Mahmudullah, played the original line, and was done in by the rare one that turned. Axar slowed down the hat-trick ball even more, Jaker Ali obliged with an edge, which Rohit spilled.
Soon Hardik Pandya dropped Hridoy on 23 in Kuldeep Yadav’s first over. Scoring runs was still a task on the sluggish surface, more than 10 overs went without a boundary, but also India went the middle overs without a single wicket for the first time since the 2023 World Cup final. Jaker did provide an opportunity on 24 but this time KL Rahul missed the stumping off Ravindra Jadeja.
The duo found their touch deeper into the innings, but Hridoy was hampered by cramps all over his body. Shami returned to the challenging task of bowling with a short leg-side boundary but used the slower ball wide outside off to not just deny them boundaries but also collect three more wickets. A cameo from Rishad Hossain and Hridoy’s fight despite crippling cramps took Bangladesh to a fighting total.
Rohit continued his high-intent starts of recent times, and Gill matched him shot for shot as India raced away from the three Bangladesh quicks. Just before the field was about to spread, Rohit fell for 41 off 36 in a bid to make one last use of the field restrictions. Immediately, scoring became laborious. Even the master accumulator Virat Kohli struggled to manipulate the ball into gaps before falling to a legspinner again, this one with the letters of Rashid scrambled to Rishad.
Shreyas Iyer played the conditions for a while, but once he got a couple and a boundary off Mustafizur Rahman, he overreached and lobbed a slower ball to mid-off to be dismissed for 15 off 17. Promoted for the dual tasking of breaking the sequence of right-hand batters and also have an eye on the net run rate, Axar skied a slog-sweep, failing to read the Rishad topspinner.
The last three wickets had fallen for 75 runs and had taken 20.2 overs. You would have thought the sight of KL Rahul would have brought calm to the proceedings, but he tried an uncharacteristic hoick early on only to be dropped by Jaker, whom he had himself reprieved earlier in the day. That proved to be the last opportunity for Bangladesh even as India overcame the ghosts of the failed chases in Sri Lanka last year.
The man to thank was Gill, who anchored the chase and made sure he was there at the end. He was 26 off 23 when Rohit got out, but as the conditions changed he tightened his game and took only selective risks. His next boundary came only when the skiddy fast bowler Tanzim Hasan came back. In the 32nd over. By that time had brought up his slowest half-century.
Gill was content with singles off the spinners and even Mustafizur, who bowls a wicked slower ball to make use of these conditions. He scored just 30 off the 52 balls following Rohit’s dismissal, then went into middle gears before finishing it off in glory. He needed 12 out of the 19 runs to bring up a hundred, and hit a six and a four off Tanzim to get to the mark off 125 balls and take his customary bow. Rahul took India home with a six off Tanzim with 21 balls to spare.
Brief scores:
India 231 for 4 in 46.3 overs (Rohit Sharma 41, Shubnam Gill 101*, Virat Kohli 22, KL Rahul 41*; Taskin Ahmed 1-36, Mustafizur Rahman 1-42, Rishad Hossain 2-38) beat Bangladesh 228 in 49.4 overs (Towhid Hridoy 100, Tanzid Hasan 25, Jaker Ali 68; Mohammed Shami 5-53, Harshit Rana 3-31, Axar Patel 2-43) by six wickets
[Cricinfo]
No matter how good you are or how likely you are to win or how forgiving the schedule is, a World Cup brings its own unique challenges and stakes, especially at home, especially given the current geopolitics of the region this home is in. India have been comfortable victors in all three matches so far but haven’t yet been able to unleash the style of play that they want to.
The last of these three matches was one in which India had all to lose. Nothing rode on the match against Pakistan in terms of progression or whom they face in the Super Eights, yet they couldn’t afford to lose. Such overwhelming favourites losing to underdogs in the current geopolitical climate would have been massive outside the purview of this tournament. A win, however, merely reaffirmed their status as the favourites.
Now India will look to go back to try to score big. They haven’t yet scored more than 209 despite batting first in all three games. Ahmedabad at night is the perfect scenario for them. Four of the last five first innings in Ahmedabad in the night have been over 210.
Netherlandswill want to prove they are not mere props, a vehicle to see how much India can push the limits of what scores are absurd. They were within one catch of beating Pakistan, they beat Namibia, and will want to show they are no pushovers.
India will want to bat first should they win the toss, but it will be interesting to see whether Netherlands want to avoid an impossible target or do what teams do to give themselves the best chance to win in the night in Ahmedabad.
He is the best T20 batter in the world, but Abhishek Sharma’s initiation to the World Cup has been an inauspicious one: golden duck, stomach illness, four-ball duck. And it doesn’t say anything about Abhishek’s skill or temperament. It is just one of those things. But Abhishek will want to get it out of the way so it doesn’t weigh on him in the Super Eights.
Netherlands will look to borrow from Abhishek’s first two dismissals in the World Cup. As it is, they like to open the bowling with offspinner Aryan Dutt. . After Salman Agha tied Abhishek down for three balls and got him out off the fourth, this belief will be reaffirmed. Do mind, though, that Ahmedabad is no Colombo. You can trust yourself to clear the infield on this batting paradise.
Outside of Harshit Rana’s last-minute injury and withdrawal from the tournament, all other availability issues that India faced are now sorted. The only change they will likely make is go back to Arshdeep Singh ahead of Kuldeep Yadav on the quicker Ahmedabad surface.
India (probable): Abhishek Sharma, Ishan Kishan (wk), Tilak Varma, Suryakumar Yadav (capt), Hardik Pandya, Rinku Singh, Shivam Dube, Axar Patel, Arshdeep Singh, Jasprit Bumrah, Varun Chakravarthy.
Netherlands have been alternating between Timm van der Gugten and Kyle Klein in their first three matches. Paul van Meekeren has played only one of their three matches, making way for left-arm quick Fred Klaasen. It will eventually come down to two of three quicks.
Netherlands (probable): Michael Levitt, Max O’Dowd, Bas de Leede, Colin Ackermann, Scott Edwards (capt & wk), Zach Lion-Cachet, Logan van Beek, Aryan Dutt, Roelof van der Merwe, two out of Kyle Klein, Fred Klaassen and Paul van Meekeren.
[Cricinfo]
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