When Bangladesh lost a T20 match against Sri Lanka in 2014 Asian Games because of a coin toss
Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are two of the top cricket teams in Asia. The two nations have recorded some memorable wins in their cricket history. While Sri Lanka have won the ICC World Cup and the T20 World Cup, Bangladesh bagged the ICC U-19 World Cup title in 2020.
The rivalry between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh has entertained fans a lot in recent times. However, not many members of the cricket universe would remember that back in 2014, Bangladesh lost a semifinal match against Sri Lanka because of a coin toss.
The match was part of the cricket event at the Asian Games 2014. Incheon in Korea Republic played host to the mega event. Heavyweights India and Pakistan stayed away from the men's cricket event. Ten teams, namely Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Malaysia, China, South Korea, Nepal, Maldives, Afghanistan, Hong Kong, and Kuwait played in the tournament.
The Islanders and the Bangladeshi team earned a direct entry into the quarterfinals due to their Test playing status, whereas Afghanistan and Hong Kong also got a bye in the first round because of their ODI status.
Bangladesh squashed Kuwait in the quarterfinals, while Sri Lanka beat hosts South Korea to advance to the semifinals. Fans expected the battle between the Islanders and the Bangladeshi team to be the best of the tournament. Unfortunately, it ended up to be one of the most bizarre semifinal games in cricket history.
Lahiru Thirimanne's luck helped Sri Lanka beat Bangladesh via a coin toss
The much-awaited semifinal match between the two Test-playing nations took place on October 2, 2014 at the Yeonhui Cricket Ground. The Islanders won the toss and opted to field first. Bangladesh were 59/3 after 11 overs when rain interrupted the proceedings in Incheon.
The rain was persistent, forcing the organizers to abandon the match. As per the rules of the tournament, the organizers planned for a Super Over if the match did not end. However, because of the rain, even a Super Over was not possible. In that case, the organizers decided to spin a coin and declare the toss winner as the finalist.
Lahiru Thirimanne came out for the toss along with Mashrafe Mortaza. Match Referee Venkatapathi Raju tossed the coin as Thirimanne called for 'tails', and tails it was. Luck favored Thirimanne as the entire Sri Lankan team celebrated the win.
Bangladesh were disappointed with the result. They had to settle for a bronze medal after beating Hong Kong in the third-place playoff match. The Islanders went on to win the gold medal by defeating Afghanistan in the final. Afghanistan took home the silver medal.
Notably, a similar incident took place in the group stages of the competition as well. In a do-or-die Group B match, underdogs Kuwait recorded a shocking win over Maldives because of a coin toss. After the toss, the Maldives players went to Kuwait's dressing room, where the Kuwait team commiserated with them because they knew Maldives had a slightly stronger side.
Whatever one thinks of boundary count as a tiebreaker, it's not as crazy as that time the Maldives got eliminated from the 2014 Asian Games cricket tournament on a coin toss.
Kuwait faced Bangladesh in the fourth quarterfinal, where Bangladesh scored 224/9 in 20 overs and then bowled their opponents out for just 21 runs in 13 overs.
As per reports, the BCCI will send a team for the men's cricket event at the Asian Games this year. It will be interesting to see if India can win the gold medal.