India start with a bang

India began their Champions Trophy campaign with a six-wicket victory against Bangladesh after opener Shubman Gill anchored their nervy chase with a classy hundred in the Group A contest on Thursday.

A victory target of 229 looked inadequate to test India’s vaunted batting but Rohit Sharma’s men faltered in their chase and owed their tense victory, even if it came with 21 balls to spare, largely to Gill’s unbeaten 101.

Gill’s ton trumped Towhid Hridoy’s heroic 100 while battling cramps that helped Bangladesh, who were 35/5 at one stage, reach 228 before being all out with two deliveries left in their innings.

Seamer Mohammed Shami claimed 5/53, signalling he was ready to lead India’s pace attack in the absence of the injured Jasprit Bumrah.

“We have been in that kind of situation many a time,” India captain Rohit Sharma said of their chase. “There’s a lot of experience in that dressing room to handle that... KL (Rahul) and Gill at the end were quite composed.”

Najmul Hossain Shanto was left to regret his decision to bat as Bangladesh lost the top half of their batting half inside nine overs.

While India’s new ball pair of Shami and Harshit Rana (3/31) struck in their first overs, spinner Axar Patel nearly claimed a hat-trick.

During the chase, Rohit (41) and Gill got India off to a flying start adding 69 runs for the opening stand.

Rohit could not initially middle the ball but boundaries soon started to flow from his bat as he crossed 11,000 runs in ODIs. Taskin Ahmed removed Rohit in the 10th over and suddenly the boundary flow stopped. Virat Kohli (22) could not convert the start while Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel fell cheaply as Bangladesh fought back with their spinners.

Brief scores: Bangladesh: 228 all out in 48.4 overs (Hridoy 100, Jaker 68; Shami 5/53, Harshit 3/31); India: 231/4 in 46.3 overs (Gill 101*, Rohit 41, Rahul 41*; Hossain 2/38).

Rohit plans dinner atonement for ruining Axar’s hat-trick

India captain Rohit Sharma plans to take teammate Axar Patel to dinner to make amends after denying the spinner a hat-trick in the match against Bangladesh. Left-arm spinner Axar struck in his first over dismissing Tanzid Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim with successive deliveries with wicketkeeper KL Rahul taking both the catches. The crowd at the Dubai International Stadium was abuzz with the prospect of a hat-trick and Axar duly induced an edge from Jaker Ali, which flew to slip towards Rohit. The India captain, however, floored the simple catch and was seen slapping the ground in frustration before getting up and apologising to Axar with folded hands. “(I) may take him for a dinner tomorrow,” a smiling Rohit said. “That was an easy catch, I should have taken that catch. You know the standard that I have set for myself standing in the slips, that was a little disappointing. But again these things happen, I do understand that.” Reuters

261 Innings in which Rohit Sharma completed 11,000 ODI runs. He is the second quickest among the 10 batters to reach that milestone, behind Virat Kohli, who got there in 222 innings. Rohit took 11,868 balls, only behind Kohli’s 11831 balls

156 Catches taken by Virat Kohli in ODIs, the joint most as a fielder for India, equal with Mohammad Azharuddin. Overall, only Mahela Jayawardene (218) and Ricky Ponting (160) have taken more catches as a fielder in ODIs

Gill has been batting brilliantly of late and today what he showed us with the bat shouldn’t surprise anyone. What was good to see was that he was there till the end. Very happy for Shami. It has been a long time waiting, we obviously know what he brings to us. —Rohit Sharma, India Captain

One of my most satisfying innings and my first century in an ICC event. At one point there was a bit of pressure on us and the message was sent from outside that I have to try to be at the end. —Shubman Gill, Player of the match