ASIA CUP(MENS), Cricket

UNIMONI ASIA CUP (MENS) 2018

Posted by Prakhar Drolia on
ASIAN CRICKET COUNCIL – LOGO

The mini World-Cup of Asia, known as the Asia Cup, was held from 15th to the 28th of the September, 2018 at Abu-Dhabi and Dubai. It consisted of 5 great and established cricketing nations and one new or unexpected competitor (HONG KONG). In total it consisted of 6 participating nations, which surprisingly did not include the hosts UAE. India were surely playing as the favorites. The most surprising performance was shown by the team of Hong Kong. There were a lot of disappointments in various situations but there were also some unexpectedly great performances. At the end, India turned out to be the true champions by showing some extravagant performance. Let’s see who came out with what:-

  1. INDIA

Let us start with the team, the nation which proved themselves the cricketing champion of the Asian continent for the 7th time in the history of the Asia Cup. The Indian Men’s National Team was captained by Rohit Sharma. There was also a surprise package for the whole world on the 25th of September when India played against Afghanistan, on that day the playing XI team was captained by none other than the former Indian Men’s Cricket Team – Mahendra Singh Dhoni (captaining his 200th ODI match). India played some good matches winning 5 out of their 6 matches and ending one in a thrilling tie. The Indian team’s greatest strength turned out be their spinners and opening batsmen. The spinners surely helped India in taking wickets and restricting their opponents to a low total whereas the batsmen continued to show their support, especially the opening duo of Rohit Sharma (also the captain) and Shikhar Dhawan. There was still a great problem with India’s middle order batting line-up with no-one scoring any serious runs. For few matches, even M. S. Dhoni turned out be a disappointment while batting. Amati Rayudu showed some great strength at both no. 3 and in the opening partnership against Afghanistan when they took the step to try out their benched players and not play players such as Rohit Sharma. Dhoni was pretty good behind the stumps with quick stumping and fielding. One of the best steps taken by India was to introduce Khaleel Ahmed into the play.  India snatched a thrilling last ball victory from Bangladesh.

 

 

  1. BANGLADESH

After the winners, let’s talk about the runners-up and the second finalist Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Men’s Cricket Time again brought surprises for the viewers by giving not only a tough fight but also qualifying for the finals and keeping the game alive till the last bowled ball of the tournament. Bangladesh had a great strength relying on their bowlers for important and unique wickets but it also resulted in Bangladesh relying on only 2-3 bowlers for wickets. Just like for wickets, a situation which put Bangladesh down was their batting. Bangladesh got important runs from a selective batsmen meaning if they failed, the whole team would tumble down. This is the reason for them facing problems after losing important wickets early in the first powerplay itself. Their performance could have been better if they had a more balanced team with better batsmen in the middle order as well as at the last wickets which would have helped relieve the stress of the selective batsmen and would have helped them establish better and humongous scores.

 

 

  1. AFGHANISTAN

Afghanistan were surely a surprise for the rest of teams as they showed some extravagant performances beating the runner-up team Bangladesh and even ending a match in a thrilling tie against the champions. They had a well balanced team with one batsmen complementing the other, one showed success if the other failed, one gave extra support if one could not, the side of bowling complemented the side of batting. The team had a better bowling line-up than its battling line-up. There were some players who succeeded in both. The Afghanistan team won more because of its bowling capacity, whereas even the batting innings yielded good results for the team. The team was well captained, well organized and well structured but had to face hard luck.

 

 

  1. PAKISTAN

Pakistan was a failure due to their playing methods, line-ups etc. They had only top 5 batsmen scoring more than 75-80% of the runs.  But they had a very good bowling line up with bowlers such as Hassan Ali and Shoaib Malik. They saved themselves from losing matches by using their bowling power to the best. There bowling failed miserably in front of India in the Super-4 Match resulting in India winning by a total of 8 wickets. Their partnership between Shoaib Malik and Babar Azam was a good one securing wickets in some matches. Fakhar Zaman did not work out in this tournament. Pakistan won 2 out of their 5 matches. A win percentage of only 20% which is even lower than win percentage of Bangladesh and a worse performance than Afghanistan. Pakistan need to think over their Cricketing team’s play.

 

 

  1. HONG KONG

Hong Kong were a great surprise as they gave tough competitions to India and Pakistan. The emerging team of Hong Kong has a very bright future with their players. They played a lot better and unexpected against India than against Pakistan. Hong Kong’s openers showed a great performance against India but still they had a low strike rate which will surely affect them in all their matches. Hong Kong needs a lot of practice, training and even better players. They may come out as a better team in their next international tournament.

 

 

  1. SRI LANKA

The Sri-Lankan team had a completely disastrous outing  at the Asia Cup. Sri Lanka lost both their matches resulting in then not progressing to the Super-4s. They had their strength lying in the hands of their bowlers who even did perform their best with one bowler taking 4-5 wickets in a single match. They continued to scare their opponents with their bowling but they failed miserably in their batting. The team could have even won the tournament if they had shown better batting performance. One of the good tries that they did was to bring back Lasith Malinga which even paid off in the first match but not much in the second match. They could confront the bowlers of the opponents pretty well therefore making it a bowler’s match both the times.

 

 

  • THE GRAND FINALE

The grand finale was won at a thrilling last ball moment by India due to their balanced team and its efforts. India could have won it more easily if the openers and the top order batsmen played a little more calmly. India lost early wickets which burdened the other batsmen with some meaning only a little but yes – pressure. India also fell down when Kedar Jadhav had to retire and came back after a wicket fell. The other batsmen who even came after Kedar Jadhav started his innings performed well providing support to India in the death overs. Bangladesh could have won if they could have sorted out their batting issues and had played some other all-rounders. Their bowling turned out be fine with efficient wickets.

 

How could the teams be placed according to their performance irrespective of wins:-

 

 
1.                                      INDIA
2.                                      BANGLADESH
3.                                      AFGHANISTAN
4.                                      PAKISTAN
5.                                      HONG KONG SRI LANKA
 

 

All in all, the Unimoni Asia Cup was filled with thrill and excitement for the viewers. All eyes are on the 2020 edition which is supposed to be played in the Twenty – Twenty format. Who will win the next season?  Let us just wait and watch.

 

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