Best Moments in Asia Cup Cricket

There could not have been a bigger stage and a better opponent for Virat Kohli to display his batting prowess. India lost to host Bangladesh in their previous league match. The next match against archrival Pakistan had a greater context because India had to win the match to remain alive in the tournament. On that day Pakistan put up one of their best performances scoring 329 in 50 overs.

If India were to score those runs it would be their biggest run chase ever beating the epic run-chase against England in the NatWest final in July 2002. But India got off to a disastrous start in the run-chase by losing opener Gautam Gambhir in the 2nd ball of the innings. The man who came next was in a sublime form of his life. Virat Kohli who batted at Number 3 had engineered a dramatic run chase scoring 320 runs inside 40 overs with a blistering 133* off 86 balls against Sri Lanka at Hobart just two innings ago. He had scored two hundreds in his last 3 innings. This time he came up with his best ODI performance scoring 183 off 148 balls and guiding India home in a comfortable manner. This was his 4th ODI hundred on that ground.

Brief Score: Pakistan 329 – 6 (50 Overs), India 330 – 4 (47.5 Overs). Player of the match – Virat Kohli

The 2008 Asia Cup is best remembered for the rise of the mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis. Pitches in Pakistan were flat and scoring 300 in an innings were a common occurrence. Meeting for the 6th time in the Asia Cup finals both team’s batsmen were in excellent form with India’s top five averaging more than fifty in the tournament. Sri Lanka made a tactical move by resting Ajantha Mendis in the league match against India. That move paid off handsomely in the final. Sri Lanka posted a target of 273 in the final which was not at all a difficult task for India since they had chased Sri Lanka’s 308 comfortably in the previous league match. But this time India’s long-established good players of spin were facing a 23 year and 8 match old mystery spinner Ajantha Mendis for the first time.

After a brisk 50 off 26 balls, Virender Sehwag was the first one to fall to the guile of Mendis. Yuvraj Singh was next to go to a carom ball, two balls later. Mendis ran through the top order with his mixture of off-breaks, leg-breaks, and straighter ones claiming 6 for 13. India suffered one of its heaviest defeats. By the end of the match, a legend was born and by this stellar performance, Mendis got fast-tracked to Test matches.

Brief Score: Sri Lanka 273 (49.5 Overs), India 173 (39.3 Overs). Player of the match – Ajantha Mendis.

When the Asian giant Sanath Jayasuriya leads the proceedings, it’s a sight to behold and more so when other batsmen are crumbling from the other end. In the 2008 Asia Cup final Jayasuriya came up with such a gem of an innings. Jayasuriya was coming back from a below-average CB series tournament in Australia with an average of 14.71 in 7 innings without scoring a 50. But the conditions were different for this 39-year-old batsman in Pakistan. He picked up form from the word go and saved his best innings for the final match. Asked to bat by Indian Captain MS Dhoni, Sri Lanka were reeling under a blazing Ishant Sharma. Sri Lanka were down to 67 for 4 in 12 overs.

That was an opportune moment for this great southpaw to exceed the situation and to start a counter attack – an inning reminiscent of Arvinda de Silav’s innings of 66 in 47 balls against India in the 1996 World Cup Semi-Final in Kolkata. He plundered RP Singh for 26 runs in the 16th over and put up a 131-run partnership with Dilshan for the 5th wicket. Rescuing Sri Lanka from the peril he brought up his 27th hundred in just 79 balls before falling to Ishant Sharma on 125. Sri Lanka ended their innings with a respectable 273. In his last appearance in the Asia Cup, he finished with 378 runs – the most in a single edition. India lost the final – thanks to the brilliant bowling by Ajatha Mendis.

Brief Score: Sri Lanka 273 (49.5 Overs), India 173 (39.3 Overs). Player of the match – Ajantha Mendis.