The thriller spinner on a Karachi night time, the infamy of a a hundredth hundred, a tie and not using a tremendous over: Five basic Asia Cup matches

After a four-year hiatus, 2022 marks the return of cricket’s oldest and solely premium worldwide continental match, Asia Cup. The fifteenth version of the competitors kicks off on Saturday, August 27 within the United Arab Emirates and can see six groups play 13 matches together with the ultimate on Sunday, September 11.

With cricket combating the battle of id between worldwide video games and franchise leagues, the relevance of the competitors is probably not the identical because it as soon as was however scrolling again the historical past pages, one is bound to find a few of the most exceptional video games within the sport’s historical past. Here’s our curation of 5 basic Asia Cup matches, ranked in no specific order.

(For the sake of selection, we haven’t included the final 5 India-Pakistan Asia Cup clashes, which we’ve lined in a separate piece)

India vs Sri Lanka 2004, Colombo: Sri Lanka might not have been the large match group because it was in 1996 or as it could be for a chronic interval within the years to return however the hosts of the 2004 Asia Cup nonetheless had a robust lineup led by Marvan Atapattu. India have been in fact the World Cup runner ups from solely a 12 months again, comprising an ideal mix of thrilling youth and expertise led by Sourav Ganguly.

Powered by fifties from the skipper, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh, India posted a complete of 272 for the hosts. It was one Sanath Jayasuriya who stored the Lankans within the chase together with his century in opposition to the autumn of wickets, taking his aspect so far as 19 runs away from a win. With 11 runs wanted within the ultimate over, Zaheer Khan received the match for India conceding solely six. A loss Sri Lanka did finally avenge once they defeated India to raise the trophy in entrance of their house followers.

India vs Sri Lanka 2008, Karachi: Another assembly of the 2 4 years later, in one other ultimate of the Asia Cup noticed the rise of a Sri Lankan hero Indian followers barely knew earlier than however would always remember after. But first, a refresher of what the scenario was. Batting first, Sri Lanka have been dismissed for 273, not too dissimilar a scorecard from that 2004 assembly in Colombo with Sanath Jayasuriya notching up one other century. India had chased 309 on this very floor in opposition to Sri Lanka solely three nights in the past, with six wickets in hand and 19 balls to spare.

But the 2007 World Cup finalists had a thriller spinner by the identify of Ajantha Mendis of their arsenal. In his spell of eight overs, the 23-year-old ripped by means of the Indian batting order dismissing the Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan and RP Singh, resulting in India being all out for a 173.

Bangladesh vs India 2012, Mirpur: Over a 12 months lengthy wait got here to an finish as Sachin Tendulkar turned the primary participant to attain 100 worldwide a whole bunch. The innings nonetheless, would stay in infamy with the results of the match. India solely managed to attain 289 of their quota of fifty overs.

Powered by fifties from Tamim Iqbal, Jahurul Islam and Nasir Hossain, the hosts pulled off one of many largest upsets within the competitors’s historical past with a 5 wicket win. The match would find yourself being the distinction between which group featured within the ultimate with Bangladesh additionally defeating Sri Lanka later and arrange a ultimate in opposition to Pakistan

Pakistan vs Bangladesh 2012, Mirpur: Hosts, finalists, Bangladesh cricket had the chance to make Asia Cup 2012 much more exceptional and their first main worldwide title, in entrance of a packed house crowd. 235 was the full set by Pakistan. With Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan each scoring fifties, Bangladesh appeared set to defeat the one group they hadn’t within the competitors and raise the trophy.

With eight required off the ultimate six balls and three wickets in hand, the percentages didn’t look unhealthy up till the very finish. Aizaz Cheema ended up giving solely six runs and Pakistan ruined the night time for Bangladesh with a two run win. “If I had scored two more runs we would have won the game, we came so close to win the Asia Cup,” stated the participant of the match, Shakib Al Hasan.

India vs Afghanistan 2018, Dubai: Having already booked their ticket for the ultimate, India made a number of adjustments for his or her ultimate Super 4 recreation in opposition to Afghanistan, together with the captain. MS Dhoni went to toss for the two hundredth and final time in his ODI profession. But he was barely the keeper who stole the sunshine. Mohammad Shahzad’s hundred propelled the Afghans to 252.

The chase ended up being trickier for India than they’d’ve anticipated. With the highest three in KL Rahul (60), Ambati Rayudu (52) and Dinesh Karthik (44) scoring the vast majority of runs, the center and the decrease center order had the duty of getting simply 45 runs from the final 60 deliveries. Rashid Khan and co. did the unbelievable activity of holding the likes of Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni until the very finish. And with seven wanted off Rashid’s ultimate over India might handle solely six. For higher or worse, there was no tremendous over, and the match resulted in a tie.