It was another show of some clinical striking from the hard-hitting Indian opener, Shubman Gill who punched heroically above his weight to bring up his maiden double century, becoming the youngest man in ODI cricket to score a 200 against a mountain of almost insurmountable challenges.
He got off to a slow start but was shortly rattling barriers at will as he switched gears and once he had crossed the century mark, it was only shifting from strength to strength for the young man. This will be a massive feather in his already bedecked cap that has him placed firmly in the race to lead the Indian batting come November 2023 where India steps into the ICC World Cup.
His 208 was a thunderous game-changer for the Men in Blue as the Blackcaps failed to sustain their late momentous and given the copious numbers on the board, they would eventually fall short by a paltry 12 runs. He was rightly awarded the Player of the Match for that seminal knock that would go onto serve as a lesson for several budding cricketers.
Talking at the post-match awards show, Shubman Gill said, “I was waiting eagerly to go out there and do what I wanted to do. I wanted to unleash but sometimes you don’t get to do it with wickets falling. I got to do it in the end. When the bowler is on top, you have to get them under pressure otherwise it’s easier for them to create dot balls. I tried to get singles and boundaries and get them under pressure.”
He then started talking about his double century, spilling out an important fact, adding, “I wasn’t thinking about 200 before I hit those sixes in the 46th or 47th over. That’s when I thought I could get a double. I won’t call it a “wow” feeling but it feels nice when the ball goes off the bat how you want it. There’s certainly a feeling of satisfaction. It has sunk in pretty well, this is certainly one of those things, like what dreams are made of.”
