India gets 349 thanks to a Shubman Gill tremendous inning
In India’s opening ODI against New Zealand in Hyderabad on Wednesday, Shubman Gill set a new record for the youngest cricketer to score an ODI double with a career-best 208. (January 18). While New Zealand was able to break every significant fifty-plus partnership India posted, the irrepressible Gill broke many records on his own to help India to a score higher than par.
And if Shreyas Iyer hadn’t gotten hurt at the last minute, Ishan Kishan would have replaced Gill in the starting lineup instead of him, not because of Kishan’s superior form but because of the need for a keeper since KL Rahul is missing from this series.
- When a spot in the middle order opened up on match day, Gill kept his opener’s spot and paid back the team’s management with a record-breaking double. Gill almost finished off the innings with the bat, turning a cautious start into a significant contribution highlighted by a surge of speed right as he was running out of partners. Gill made batting appear effortless with his powerful pulls and beautiful drives on a surface where the ball was stopping a little and the next-best score was only 34.
- India’s deputy captain Hardik Pandya and wicketkeeper Shardul Thakur have returned to the starting lineup, and the team’s captain has decided to bat first. As Henry Shipley struggled with his distances, Gill and Rohit Sharma got off to a good start. Early on, Rohit took a shine to the pacer and pounded him for two sixes and two boundaries in the opening five overs.
- After India got off to a fast start, New Zealand fought back admirably by striking at regular intervals and sending out Rohit, Virat Kohli, and then Kishan. After the opening batter hit a six to reach his run a ball fifty, though, it was all Gill.
- India got off to a good start, with Rohit at the helm with 34 off 38 balls, but he threw it away when he lofted a shot too early and skied it straight to mid-on. Shortly after returning to defend a length ball from Mitchell Santner, Kohli was out of there. The ball had twisted just enough to beat Kohli’s outside edge and crash into the off-stump. India’s batting collapsed at 110/3 after the in-form Kishan nicked a Lockie Ferguson delivery behind.
- Suryakumar Yadav, unfazed, got off the mark with a boundary in the very next over and went on to hit four more in the first ten balls he faced in the middle before turning to some nimble running in between the wickets. The duo did an excellent job, as seen by their fifty-run stand off only 38 deliveries. On the other end, Gill sped up, and the occasional boundary continued coming in. Suryakumar, who had been on 31 off 24, just avoided being stumped off Santner, but Daryl Mitchell ended the fast 65-run stand when Suryakumar chipped one to him at cover.
- Despite losing a key wicket against the flow of play, Gill continued to blitz, scoring his second consecutive century in 87 balls by pulling Santner over midwicket. Gill became the second-fastest Indian, behind only Shikhar Dhawan (17 innings), to reach three hundreds in one-day internationals. When he scored 109, he also became the fastest Indian to reach 1000 runs in ODIs, surpassing Dhawan and Kohli’s previous mark (24 innings).
- On 122, Gill was given a life when Shipley dropped a return catch from the opener. He then compounded New Zealand’s misery by hitting a booming off-drive off an overpitched delivery. When he reached 131, it was a new personal best, but an odd call from the third umpire ended his 74-run stand with Pandya.
- New Zealand was on the fence about whether to call a bowled when Mitchell was bowling to the Indian vice-captain, who was squished for space and missed a cut shot. The umpires’ bails flashed and they radioed their call to the dugout. However, the TV umpire ruled in favour of New Zealand, much to the dismay of the home crowd, despite their being no edge and no obvious evidence of the ball disturbing the stumps. Pandya returned to the dugout after contributing 28 runs on 38 hits.
- Gill, like with his fifty, brought up the 150 with a six, and it smoked well over a broad long-on barrier. But after that, New Zealand was able to slow India’s run rate for a while. Four straight overs went by without a boundary, but during that time Shipley picked up his first ODI scalp by trapping Washington Sundar LBW on 12 (a decision the Indian team used a review on), and Shardul Thakur gave up his wicket for an in-form Gill following a disastrous mix-up in the middle.
- To express his appreciation for that small vote of confidence, the opener accelerated to his first double-century in one-day international play. Gill unleashed a pair of sixes off Tickner in the 48th over, the first of which he flat-batted into the sightscreen and the second of which he sent hurtling into the deep midwicket stands. He reached the landmark with the last of three consecutive sixes in the penultimate over from Ferguson, facing just 23 balls. When India needed a big knock, Gill delivered one and eventually holed out to deep midwicket.
- Snapshot Rankings: India 349 runs for eight wickets in 50 overs.
