The mystery spinner on a Karachi night, the infamy of a 100th hundred, a tie without a super over: Five classic Asia Cup matches

After a four-year hiatus, 2022 marks the return of cricket’s oldest and only premium international continental tournament, Asia Cup. The 15th edition of the competition kicks off on Saturday, August 27 in the United Arab Emirates and will see six teams play 13 matches including the final on Sunday, September 11.
With cricket fighting the battle of identity between international games and franchise leagues, the relevance of the competition may not be the same as it once was but scrolling back the hory pages, one is sure to locate some of the most remarkable games in the sport’s hory. Here’s our curation of five classic Asia Cup matches, ranked in no particular order.
(For the sake of variety, we haven’t included the last five India-Pakan Asia Cup clashes, which we have covered in a separate piece)
India vs Sri Lanka 2004, Colombo: Sri Lanka may not have been the big tournament team as it was in 1996 or as it would be for a prolonged period in the years to come but the hosts of the 2004 Asia Cup still had a strong lineup led Marvan Atapattu. India were of course the World Cup runner ups from only a year back, comprising a perfect blend of exciting youth and experience led Sourav Ganguly.

Powered fifties from the skipper, Virender Sehwag and Yuvraj Singh, India posted a total of 272 for the hosts. It was one Sanath Jayasuriya who kept the Lankans in the chase with his century against the fall of wickets, taking his side as far as 19 runs away from a win. With 11 runs needed in the final over, Zaheer Khan won the match for India conceding only six. A loss Sri Lanka did eventually avenge when they defeated India to lift the trophy in front of their home fans.
India vs Sri Lanka 2008, Karachi: Another meeting of the two four years later, in another final of the Asia Cup saw the rise of a Sri Lankan hero Indian fans barely knew before but would never forget after. But first, a refresher of what the situation was. Batting first, Sri Lanka were dismissed for 273, not too dissimilar a scorecard from that 2004 meeting in Colombo with Sanath Jayasuriya notching up another century. India had chased 309 on this very ground against Sri Lanka only three nights ago, with six wickets in hand and 19 balls to spare.

But the 2007 World Cup finals had a mystery spinner the name of Ajantha Mendis in their arsenal. In his spell of eight overs, the 23-year-old ripped through the Indian batting order dismissing the Virender Sehwag, Suresh Raina, Yuvraj Singh, Rohit Sharma, Irfan Pathan and RP Singh, leading to India being all out for a 173.
Bangladesh vs India 2012, Mirpur: Over a year long wait came to an end as Sachin Tendulkar became the first player to score 100 international hundreds. The innings however, would live in infamy with the result of the match. India only managed to score 289 in their quota of 50 overs.

Powered fifties from Tamim Iqbal, Jahurul Islam and Nasir Hossain, the hosts pulled off one of the biggest upsets in the competition’s hory with a five wicket win. The match would end up being the difference between which team featured in the final with Bangladesh also defeating Sri Lanka later and set up a final against Pakan
Pakan vs Bangladesh 2012, Mirpur: Hosts, finals, Bangladesh cricket had the opportunity to make Asia Cup 2012 even more remarkable and their first major international title, in front of a packed home crowd. 235 was the total set Pakan. With Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan both scoring fifties, Bangladesh looked set to defeat the only team they hadn’t in the competition and lift the trophy.

With eight required off the final six balls and three wickets in hand, the odds didn’t look bad up until the very end. Aizaz Cheema ended up giving only six runs and Pakan ruined the night 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,” said the player of the tournament, Shakib Al Hasan.
India vs Afghanan 2018, Dubai: Having already booked their ticket for the final, India made multiple changes for their final Super 4 game against Afghanan, including the captain. MS Dhoni went to toss for the 200th and last time in his ODI career. But he was barely the keeper who stole the light. Mohammad Shahzad’s hundred propelled the Afghans to 252.

The chase ended up being trickier for India than they would’ve expected. With the top three in KL Rahul (60), Ambati Rayudu (52) and Dinesh Karthik (44) scoring the majority of runs, the middle and the lower middle order had the task of getting just 45 runs from the last 60 deliveries. Rashid Khan and co. did the incredible task of holding the likes of Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni till the very end. And with seven needed off Rashid’s final over India could manage only six. For better or worse, there was no super over, and the match ended in a tie.