Asia Cup 2018: 3 Reasons why India-Bangladesh could be a better final than India-Pakistan
Fans are always looking forward to any India-Pakistan clash anywhere around the world. While the two countries have a tense history dating back to the time of partition, their cricketing rivalry saw its peak with the boom of one-day cricket during the 1980s. While Sharjah (in the UAE) was the venue that saw some of the greatest encounters between the two sides, their recent encounters have mostly been in Asia Cup and ICC tournaments.
However, with an unbeaten record against Pakistan in World Cups, India also got the better of Pakistan in most of their encounters during this century. While Pakistan surprised everyone with a huge victory over India in the 2017 ICC Champions Trophy final, the fact is that most of the encounters between the two teams have turned out to be one-sided affairs.
However, Bangladesh, who have an equally good chance of making it to the next round, pose a bigger challenge to India. With India already in the final, a Bangladesh-India final is quite likely. But true cricketing fans need not worry, as this rivalry promises equally good competition as an India-Pakistan match, if not better. Let's have a look at a few reasons why.
#1 21st Century Rivalry Between India and Bangladesh
Bangladesh's stunning performance during the 1999 World Cup, where they defeated Scotland and finalists Pakistan, helped them earn Test status - playing their first match in 2000 against India. While they did not appear as a threat to the second-best team of that time, India, they caused a major upset defeating India in the Boxing Day ODI in 2004.
But nothing hurt India as much as their 2007 World Cup encounter, where Bangladesh's five-wicket defeat caused India to exit the tournament in just the first round. They pulled another upset, defeating India in the 2012 Asia Cup, and causing them to exit again in the first round. Bangladesh reached the final, and narrowly missed out on the title - losing by a margin of just two runs.
Bangladesh stunned the World Cup by stemming England's tide and making it to the World Cup quarterfinals for the first time in the 2015 edition. While Bangladesh lost in the quarters to India, India suffered a similar fate to host team Australia in the semis. When India toured Bangladesh for an ODI series three months later, the furious Bangladesh bamboozled India - thanks to the efforts of debutante Mustafizur Rehman.
The two teams also met in the T20 finals of the 2016 Asia Cup and the 2018 Nidahas Trophy. Both matches turned out to be great finishes, and are regarded among the tightest tournament finals of this decade. The drama that was stirred up by Bangladesh veteran Mushfiqur Rehman's 'Naagin (Cobra) Dance' took the Nidahas Trophy to another level. Dinesh Karthik's last ball six to win the match caused the sort of excitement among cricketing circles, as did Javed Miandad's six against India in 1986.