Mohammed Shami's five-wicket spell and a gutsy unbeaten ton by Shubman Gill helped India begin the 2025 Champions Trophy on a good note. Bangladesh struggled hard at one stage with the bat to recover from a desperate situation on the back of a breathtaking maiden ODI hundred by Towhid Hridoy but still fell short of having enough runs on the board to test their opponents. Although untested relatively, India recovered from a small glitch in the middle overs before Gill and KL Rahul settled in the last overs.
Bangladesh were on the backfoot right from the start in this game. Shami and Harshit Rana bowled them out for 2 runs in the initial two overs and once Axar Patel was introduced in the powerplay, things only worsened for the batting side. The left-arm spinner got rid of Tanzim Hasan and the experience of Mushfiqur Rahim off two consecutive balls and should have done the same for a hat-trick as well when Jaker Ali edged one to first slip where Rohit Sharma dropped a regulation catch. That one-sided period of play witnessed Bangladesh losing half their side for a paltry 35.
Thirsty for a partnership, the batting side had two saviors in the form of Jaker and Hridoy. With so much time left, the two batsmen were content batting out overs to deny Bangladesh a cheap collapse. The boundaries were hard to come by in the middle overs against India spinners and with no one taking any risks, Rohit even attempted to break the partnership by introducing pace. That plan did not work as the two batsmen slowly got into confidence and even scored their respective half-centuries.
Hridoy started opening up by striking sixes off successive overs. That way, the run rate first went past 4 in their innings in the 40th over. Shami finally brought the 154-run stand which was threatening to come to an end by removing Jaker. Rishad Hossain's mini cameo later saw the score go past 200 but Bangladesh could not achieve the finish they would have wanted with Hridoy exhausting himself due to cramps. Even though he did score a three-figure mark, Shami brought the proceedings to a halt to complete his five-fer. Shielding just 228, Bangladesh were under pressure very early as Rohit and Gill attacked the bowling line-up in the PowerPlay. Gill started with a boundary very early in his innings but it was Rohit who did most of the scoring in the initial exchanges. A couple of boundaries against Mustafizur Rahman took him past 11000 runs in the format. He developed a liking for the left-arm seamer as he hammered him for five more boundaries off his next two overs to reach 37. Tanzim Hasan was then introduced into the attack with a six over deep midwicket by Gill as India sped to 65/0 in the first nine overs.
Rohit's charge was then cut short by Taskin Ahmed with the Indian captain mistiming one in the last over of the fielding restrictions. The run rate was cut sharply though in the next ten overs after Bangladesh resorted to spin. On a surface that had started to show enough signs of slowing, Gill and Virat Kohli played cautiously with no scoreboard pressure as such. But that caution resulted in a couple of wickets that kept India on the edge. Kohli was dismissed again by a legspinner first before Shreyas Iyer miscued one much to the relief of Mustafizur on a night when he leaked a lot of runs.
A promotion once again especially with spin in control of proceedings, Axar was not able to make an impression as he was not able to make proper contact on a googly and was bowled. India was still 85 runs short at this juncture, and another wicket would have put the game back on an even keel. Rahul, however, continued to play in the same way as Gill played at the other end and showed a lot of patience by just waiting for a bit and just pushing the ball about.
Bangladesh also didn't do their cause any good as Jaker provided India a favour by getting out Rahul at a key moment with the run-chasing side still requiring 63 at the time. Rahul capitalized on it as a release shot off Rishad saw him thrash him over long on for a six. The boundaries then began to flow in a regular manner as Gill completed the 90s with a great pick up shot which cleared the deep midwicket fence. Just when Rahul was sealing the win with another huge six, Gill was able to complete his slowest ODI hundred which arguably is his biggest one till date considering the stage.
Brief scores: Bangladesh 228 in 49.4 overs (Towhid Hridoy 100, Jaker Ali 68; Mohammed Shami 5/53, Harshit Rana 3/31) lost to India 231/4 in 46.3 overs (Shubman Gill 101*, KL Rahul 41*; Rishad Hossain 2/38) by six wickets
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