5 epic India vs Pakistan encounters in the Asia Cup 

#3 Asia Cup 2012, Group Stage, Dhaka

The game which is often cited as the one where 'an Indian legend played his last game and another righteously stated his will to be an Indian legend'. Pakistan appeared resilient throughout the tournament and had wins in both their previous group matches.

Defenders India did beat Sri Lanka in their opener but their loss to Bangladesh was overlooked thanks to Sachin Tendulkar's remarkable achievement of scoring his 100th century. Sachin had got all the plaudits and had his name against almost every batting record over the years, and he scored a 52 in this game which was his swansong.

Misbah-Ul-Haq won the toss and opted to bat and a devastating opening partnership of 224 between Nasir Jamshed (105) and Mohammad Hafeez (112) had the Indian bowlers bewildered and their shot selection and execution had the fielders scratching their heads.

The match prior to this involving these two countries was the ICC World Cup 2011 semi-final and the Indian bowling had no representative among them from that game in Mohali. The bowling did appear meek and it was some agile fielding that made Pakistan settle for 329/6 courtesy Younis Khan whose solidarity prevented a middle-order collapse and he himself collected 52 against his name.

India lost the wicket of Gautam Gambhir on a very sublime off-spin delivery by Mohammad Hafeez which was also the 2nd ball of the innings. A seasoned batting display the maestro Tendulkar and an authoritative 68 by Rohit Sharma provided India the resistance against a set of bowlers with the credentials of Wahab Riaz, Shahid Afridi and Saeed Ajmal.

But the stand out performance of the encounter was the absolute master-class of Virat Kohli, who just dominated the night with his astounding 183. His genius was evident as he held the innings with his swift running-between-the-wickets and tenacious cuts and drives.

Post the 40th over when the asking rate starting to escalate, he switched gears and went into demolition mode getting 16 and 13 runs in consecutive overs. The end to the game was rather lopsided as Pakistan could not put up a shield against the wrath of Kohli's bat and he made the hefty chase look simple till he was at the crease.

This was Virat's second century in the tournament and the newly appointed vice-captain of the Indian team inflicted their only loss of the tournament to Pakistan. A game that should have gone down to the last ball was won with 13 balls and 6 wickets to spare as Dhoni smashed his trademark boundary-to-the-end-the-match.

Pakistan were eventual champions after clinching victory against an upbeat Bangladesh but on 18th March 2012, Virat Kohli just owned the stage and gave us a glimpse of what Indian cricket could expect from him even as their batting hero for the last 2 decades descended into the horizon.

Result: India won by 6 wickets.

Pakistan 329/6 in 50 overs, India 330/4 in 47.5 overs.

Man of the Match: Virat Kohli (183 runs off 69 balls; 4's- 22, 6's- 1)