Shubman Gill produced a Player-of-the-Match performance in India's win over Afghanistan in Dharamsala ODI.
Shubman Gill’s unbeaten half-century headlined India's seven-wicket victory over Afghanistan in the rain-truncated first ODI at HPCA Stadium, Dharamsala on Saturday (June 13).
In a contest which was reduced to 25 overs per side, Afghanistan posted 194/10 on the board thanks to Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s blazing 102 off 51 balls.
The hosts replied with 195 for 3 in 22.5 overs. While skipper Gill remained unbeaten on 84 off 66 balls, Ishan Kishan contributed 22-ball 34 and KL Rahul scored 19-ball 39* during the chase.
Reflecting on the win, Gill praised Gurbaz’s scintillating century but highlighted India's disciplined middle and death-overs bowling to pull things back.
He felt it was a fantastic batting wicket, with the ball coming on nicely for the batters, though the spinners found a bit of grip during the first innings.
“I mean, it was kind of a T20 game, I think the way we started and then they pulled the game away from us. Gurbaz batted brilliantly, the way he got his century was brilliant. But I think the way we pulled back in the middle overs and the death overs was brilliant. Honestly, I think it was a brilliant wicket to bat on. It was, as the match went on, even when we were bowling, there was a little bit of grip for the spinners. When they were bowling, the ball was coming on pretty nicely,” Gill said while speaking at the post-match presentation.
The Indian captain was thrilled with a spectacular one-handed slip catch to dismiss Allah Ghazanfar, a reward for the extra practice he put in before the match.
“I definitely caught the ball. Practising a lot, taking a lot of slip catches and even, you know, before the match, I was talking to our fielding coach (T Dilip) that I haven’t really taken like a really brilliant catch in my international career so far, one-handed and very happy to get that catch,” he stated.
Talking about the terrible mix-up between him and Rohit, which resulted in the latter’s run out, Gill said: “He saw the replay, he said it's fine. Even in the last match that we played against Afghanistan, T20s, he got run out there as well.”
Shubman Gill praised debutants Gurnoor Brar and Harsh Dubey for their impactful roles in the series opener. Despite Gurbaz’s century, both young bowlers showed exceptional character to trigger a collapse.
“Very impressive, upfront, how Gurnoor bowled, brilliant pace and the way he was swinging the ball, the kind of length he bowled consistently and even Harsh as well, after I think in the first over, he went for 16-17 runs and the way he pulled the game back, trusted himself and kept tossing the ball up. It was very impressive,” Gill remarked.
According to Gill, an ODI match is won or lost in the middle overs and maintaining tactical discipline during this period sets up everything else.
“I think the middle overs in one-day games is very crucial, if you can keep, as a bowling group, if we can keep building pressure in the middle overs and keep creating opportunities and same when we are batting, if we can keep rotating the strike, keep batting at a healthy run rate, 6-6.5, without losing too many wickets, then you can really set up the game in the death. So these are the key points that we discuss in team meetings, how can we keep creating opportunities in the middle overs as a bowling group and when we are batting, how can we, keep really pumping on the runs,” he concluded.