Rohit Sharma promises dinner for Axar Patel after his drop catch denies India all-rounder Champions Trophy hat-trick

Rohit Sharma promises dinner for Axar Patel after his drop catch denies India all-rounder Champions Trophy hat-trick

Rohit Sharma promises dinner for Axar Patel after his drop catch denies India all-rounder Champions Trophy hat-trick ByHT Sports Desk Feb 20, 2025 10:44 PM IST Share Via Copy Link “I may take him (Axar) for dinner tomorrow,” said India captain Rohit Sharma after his drop catch cost a Champions Trophy hat-trick for Axar Patel.

India captain Rohit Sharma promised to take teammate Axar Patel for dinner after dropping a simple catch that robbed the all-rounder of a maiden hat-trick in the Champions Trophy Group A match at the Dubai International Stadium on Thursday. In the 9th over of Bangladesh's innings, Axar Patel dismissed Tanzid Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim off successive balls to leave Bangladesh in dire straits. Sensing a hat-trick, captain Rohit deployed two slips and a leg slip to aid Axar. The left-arm spinner produced the best ball of the over to induce the outside edge of Jaker Ali's bat, but Rohit, at first slip, could not hold on to the simple catch.

India's captain Rohit Sharma sets the field during the ICC Champions Trophy(AFP)

Axar would have been the first Indian to take a hat-trick in the Champions Trophy but it wasn't to be. The drop catch hurt India dearly as Jaker Ali went on to his 68 and forged Bangladesh's highest ODI partnership (154) for any wicket with Towhid Hridoy. If Rohit had taken his catch in the first slip in the powerplay, Bangladesh would have been reduced to 35/6, but instead, they went on to post 228, a competitive total on a pitch that became more and more difficult as the game progressed.

Thankfully for Rohit and India, Shubman Gill hit his 8th ODI century as India chased down the target with six wickets in hand to get off to a winning start in the Champions Trophy.

After the match, Rohit was asked about his drop catch, and the Indian captain said he should have taken that catch, considering the high standards he sets for himself in the field. "I may take him (Axar) for dinner tomorrow. No, that was an easy catch, I should have taken that catch with the standards I have set for myself. But I do know these things are bound to happen. Credit to Hridoy and Jaker, they stitched a nice partnership," Rohit said with a big smile.

Rohit also gave an interesting reaction when Jaker Ali returned the favour by dropping KL Rahul's catch during India's chase. The Indian captain was seen giggling and saying, "I dropped you".

Pace spearhead Mohammed Shami set up victory with figures of 5-53, helping reduce Bangladesh to 35-5 in his opening spell before they recovered to manage 228 all out after electing to bat first.

In reply, India started strongly as Rohit Sharma and Gill got going with regular boundaries. Rohit became just the 10th batsman -- and fourth from India -- to surpass 11,000 ODI runs.

The India captain made 41 before he was dismissed by fast bowler Taskin Ahmed and Virat Kohli walked in to loud cheers from the crowd at a largely empty stadium.

Kohli took 10 balls to get his first run and made 22 before mis-timing a late cut to backward point off leg-spinner Rishad Hossain.

India lost two more wickets after Rishad and Mustafizur Rahman removed Axar Patel and Shreyas Iyer to put India in trouble at 144-4.

But vice-captain Gill, who was player of the series with 259 runs in India's 3-0 ODI sweep of England last week, kept calm as he and KL Rahul took the team home in an unbeaten 87-run stand.

Rahul finished 41 not out but was dropped early in his innings by Jaker at deep mid-wicket and India never faltered after that with Gill reaching his eighth ODI century.