Five close encounters in Asia Cup

Asia Cup tournament which started way back in 1984 has seen a lot of close games and thrilling encounters in a crunch situation in recent times including the ongoing edition where we saw the Sri Lankan team on the verge of being eliminated from the Super Four race got qualified at the last moment in this Asia Cup.Here, in this article, we will see five close and thrilling games from different Asia Cup editions: 1. Pakistan vs Bangladesh 2012 Asia Cup Finals: Bangladesh team reached the Asia Cup finals for the first time in 2012 by beating teams like India and Sri Lanka in the group stage and had an uphill task of defeating Pakistan to lift the Asia Cup trophy for the first time.Bangladesh winning the toss invited Pakistan to bat first and they posted a total of 236/9 in 50 overs. Bangladeshi batters like Tamim Iqbal (60) and Shakib Al Hasan (68) scored fifties and helped their team to be competitive in the run-chase where they fought till the last ball of the match. Bangladesh needed 46 runs in the last five overs with five wickets in hand to win their maiden Asia Cup title and in the subsequent four overs, they managed 37 runs and were left with needing 9 runs to win from last over with three wickets in hand.Aizaz Cheema who bowled the final over ended up conceding only 6 runs and helped their side to lift the second Asia Cup title after 2012. Shahid Afridi won the Player of the Match award for his all-round effort on the field (32 runs & 1/28).#PAGE_BREAK# 2. Pakistan vs India 2014 Asia Cup: Pakistan team winning the toss invited India to bat first and they managed to post a total of 245/8 in 50 overs with the help of fifties from Rohit Sharma (56), Ambati Rayudu (58), and Ravindra Jadeja (52*). Pakistan chasing 246 runs were looking solid with Mohammad Hafeez scoring 75 runs and helping his side to reach a total of 200/4 in 43.2 overs where they needed just 46 runs from 40 balls to win with six wickets in hand. Pakistan from 200/4 collapsed to 236/8 in 49 overs where their team needed 10 runs to win from the last over.Ashwin who bowled the first ball of the 50th over dismissed Saeed Ajmal and made life even tougher for Pakistan batters to chase down 10 runs in the last 5 balls. Shahid Afridi who still remained not out in the run-chase smashed Ashwin for back-to-back sixes and helped his side win by 1 wicket in a close thrilling contest.Notably, this was the last time India lost a game in Asia Cup (ODI format) so far.#PAGE_BREAK# 3. India vs Afghanistan 2018 Asia Cup (Super Fours): India playing against Afghanistan in the 2018 Asia Cup was majorly remembered by everyone for MS Dhoni playing his 200th ODI game as captain. India almost sealed a spot for themselves in the finals of Asia Cup 2018 after beating sides like Bangladesh and Pakistan, hence they decided to rest their senior players like Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, etc. Hence, MS Dhoni once again got an opportunity to lead the ODI side in 2018.The Afghanistan team winning the toss opted to bat first and posted a total of 252/8 in 50 overs with Mohammad Shahzad scoring a century (124) and he was well supported by Mohammad Nabi who smashed a quick-fire fifty (64). India's spin trio Kuldeep Yadav, Ravindra Jadeja, and Kedar Jadhav picked six wickets in total.India chasing 253 runs got a 110-run opening partnership with both Ambati Rayudu (57) and KL Rahul (60) scoring fifties respectively. Dinesh Karthik batting at number 3 also scored 44 runs and helped his team to chase this total convincingly but India from 110/0 in 17 overs collapsed to 205/6 in 39.4 overs as the middle order batters including Dhoni failed to spin the attack of Afghan bowlers in the middle overs.India needed 7 runs to win from the last over with just one wicket in hand. Rashid Khan got smacked for a boundary in the second ball of the final over from Ravindra Jadeja and finally, the runs needed got reduced to 1 from just 2 balls. When it looked like Jadeja would take India home unfortunately while looking for a big shot he got out and the match got tied in an unexpected fashion.#PAGE_BREAK# 4. Pakistan vs Afghanistan 2022 Asia Cup (Super Fours): Pakistan vs. Afghanistan game in this Asia Cup edition was remembered for the thrilling finish from Naseem Shah at the end like how Shahid Afridi played against India in the 2014 Asia Cup. Pakistan winning the toss invited Afghans to bat first and they managed to post a total of only 129/6 on board in 20 overs. Pakistan chasing 130 runs were looking solid despite lagging at the required rate part as Iftikhar Ahmed (30) and Shadab Khan (36) had a decent partnership despite losing early wickets but they ended up collapsing from 87/3 in 15.2 overs to 118/9 in 18.5 overs. Pakistan needed 11 runs to win from the last over with just one wicket in hand.Naseem Shah facing the last over of the match from Fazalhaq Farooqi smashed two back-to-back sixes and ensured their spot for the finals of Asia Cup 2022. Pakistan's thrilling win in this match also ensured India were eliminated from playing in the finals of this tournament.#PAGE_BREAK# 5. Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan 2023 Asia Cup: The Sri Lanka vs. Afghanistan match has been considered to be one of the best ODI matches played in recent times. Sri Lanka winning the toss at Lahore decided to bat first and posted a huge total of 291/8 in 50 overs with the help of Kusal Mendis stunning fifty (92). Afghanistan had a task of chasing 292 runs in 37.1 overs to qualify for the Super Fours of the tournament.Afghanistan in the run-chase despite losing early wickets went on to smash 200 runs from just 25.5 overs and stayed in the hunt throughout the match to chase down 292 runs from just 37.1 overs. Mohammad Nabi smashed the fastest-ever fifty for his national side from just 24 balls. Other than Nabi, batters like Karim Janat, Najibullah Zadran, and Rashid Khan also kept their side in the Super 4s race with their quick-fire knocks.Afghanistan scored 277/8 in 50 overs and needed 15 more runs inside 7 balls to qualify for the Super 4s of the tournament. Rashid Khan smacked three boundaries off the Wellalage over and reduced the equation with 3 needed off the last ball to win. Mujeeb Ur Rahman unfortunately in the next over got dismissed to the first ball bowled by Dhananjaya de Silva and the Afghans were in complete disbelief.The Afghan team weren't aware of the situation that they could still qualify if they had scored 293 runs in 37.2 overs, 294 runs in 37.3 overs, 295 runs in 37.5 overs, 296 runs in 38 overs (or) 297 runs in 38.1 overs. Hence, the Afghan team without knowing this fact ended up playing two consecutive dot balls, and finally the last batter of the Afghan team got out in the next delivery which meant they ended up losing this game by 2 runs when they could have entered the next stage of the game itself if they were aware of their situation.

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4. Pakistan vs Afghanistan 2022 Asia Cup (Super Fours):