Top 5 Moments of Asia Cup 2018, Round 1

The fourteenth edition of Asia Cup got underway in the United Arab Emirates (U.A. E) from the 15th of September. Asia Cup 2018 has six participants with India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka earning direct qualification. Hong Kong joined the rest after winning the Asia Cup Qualifiers held in Malaysia.

Asian Cricket Council (ACC) altered the round-robin league pattern and arranged six teams into two pools. While the Pool ‘A’ comprises India, Pakistan and Hong Kong, the Pool ‘B’ comprises Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. The top two nations from each group will progress to the Super 4 stage. All four teams will play each other once before two teams make the cut to the final.

The group stage saw former champions Sri Lanka and qualifiers Hong Kong returning to their homes after being trounced twice in two matches.

Here’s a look at the top 5 moments from the Round 1 one Asia Cup.

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#5 The extraordinary display from Mushfiqur Rahim

Mushfiqur Rahim

In spite of losing wickets early on in the innings, Bangladesh somehow managed to pull off a defendable score of 261 runs against Sri Lanka thanks to Rahim’s lion-hearted effort. He smashed his sixth One-Day International century and added 131 runs for the 3rd wicket with middle order batsman Mohammad Mithun.

Bangladesh lost opener Liton Das and experienced Shakib Al Hasan in the first over. Credit to Malinga’s fireworks as the Tigers’ scoreboard read 1-2 after the first over of the innings.

Coming to bat under such a precarious situation, Mushfiqur and Mithun led the team to a safe zone. Mithun lost his wicket after scoring 63. But that did not hinder Mushfiqur as he went on hit the highest individual score (144) in the history of Asia Cup by a Bangladeshi batsman. This was his personal best ODI knock too.

#4 Hong Kong's shocking counter-attack

Hong Kong gave a huge fight to the Indian side

A sporadic number of cricket fans and pundits would have given Hong Kong a chance of chasing 286 against a star-studded Indian bowling attack. But the opening batsmen of the Dragons, Nizakat Khan and Anshuman Rath had other intentions as they almost single-handedly had the game won for their side.

The most remarkable feature of their 174-run stand was the control and situation awareness they displayed while playing India’s spinners. They completely nullified the Indian spinners’ dominance and hardly attempted a slog during their long partnership. On any fine night, a performance like this would have handed over their team a victory but the untried middle order of HK choked under pressure and flung away a comfortable win.

#3 The rise of Afghanistan Cricket

Afghanistan are unstoppable!

Afghanistan has been rising steadily as they came into this tourney on the back of triumphs in Ireland where they overpowered the home team adequately both in the T20I (2-0) and ODI (2-1) series.

They knocked out former champions Sri Lanka after comfortably taming the Lankan Lions by 91 runs in a group ‘B’ encounter. Top-order batsman Rahmat Shah scored a patient 72 as Afghanistan scored a defendable 249 against Sri Lanka at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi. Openers Ihsanullah Janat (45) and Mohammad Shahzad (34) scored pivotal runs at the top to give Afghanistan a great platform.

249 was more than enough for the Afghanis as their spin trio of Rashid Khan, Mujeeb and Nabi restricted Sri Lanka for a meager 158, beating them by 91 runs. With this failure, Sri Lanka’s Asia Cup 2018 campaign came to an early end.

#2 Tamim Iqbal coming out to bat with a broken wrist

A Real Tiger

Fans expected the Bangladesh innings to conclude when they lost their ninth wicket in the form of tail-ender Mustafizur Rahman against the Lankans. To everyone’s disbelief, Tamim Iqbal, retired hurt earlier having injured his left wrist by a bouncer from Suranga Lakmal came out to bat.

Tamim’s unbelievable batting display lasted for a brief time of three overs but that made a humongous impact on the match’s outcome.

He had to go to the hospital instantaneously from the stadium to find out if there was any fracture. A report hinted that the worst had already transpired which has made Tamim’s presence in the Super 4 uncertain.

After Tamim came to the wicket, Mushfiqur Rahim added a decisive 32 runs consisting of three fours and three maximums. This helped the Bangla side to put up a total of 261 runs on the board that gave the Bangladeshi bowlers an appropriate amount of runs to restrict the Sri Lankan batsmen.

#1 India squash Pakistan in a lop-sided affair

India vs Pakistan, Asia Cup 2018

The greatly awaited showdown between arch rivals India and Pakistan concluded with the Men in Blue outplaying their adversaries in all three departments to win the encounter with 8 wickets in hand and 21 overs to spare.

After 24 hours of withstanding a scare against minnows Hong Kong, the Indians produced a clinical display of cricket. With the introduction of Jasprit Bumrah and Hardik Pandya into the playing XI team, India was spot on from ball one.

India made short work of the Pakistani side thanks to key contributions by Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Kedar Jadhav and of course Pakistan’s inexperienced middle order. Another factor which worked in India’s favour was their fielding. The catch that substitute Manish Pandey took at the boundary and the brilliant throw by Rayudu which ran out Shoaib Malik completely shifted the game in India’s hands.

To put an end to the Men in gGreen’s hopes, Indian skipper Rohit Sharma smashed a quick-fire 50 as middle order batsmen Karthik and Rayudu wrapped up the small chase of 163 with ease.