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.

#5 The extraordinary display from 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.