5 Most Shocking Upsets of Asia Cup History

Asia Cup 2023 will be back in the One-Day International (ODI) format this year. The continental tournament will be played from August 31 to September 17 in Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka, who are the defending champions, will enter the tournament high on confidence, having won the Cricket World Cup Qualifiers 2023 recently, and would be hoping to defend the title. 

India and Pakistan will be the favourites in the competition as both sides have played quality cricket of late. The performance graph of Bangladesh and Afghanistan has soared in the last few editions of the continental tournament and considering that, the quality teams will look to be at their best against the minnows as well. In the last 12 years of the tournament, fans have witnessed how small teams have performed upset against huge teams and eliminated the latter from the competition.

Here are the five shocking upsets in the Asia Cup history

5. Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka (2018)

In the 2018 Asia Cup, Bangladesh ended their campaign as runners-up, losing to India in the final. During their amazing journey in the competition, they looked confident and beat quality sides. Bangladesh started their tournament positively, thrashing Sri Lanka by 137 runs in the opening game at Dubai International Stadium.  

Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza won the toss and elected to bat first. Lasith Malinga opened the bowling for Sri Lanka and came heavily on the Bangladesh top order, dismissing Litton Das and Shakib Al Hasan in the first over of the match. However, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mohammad Mithun stood at the crease and stabilised Bangladesh’s innings with their knocks of 144 (150) and 63 (68) respectively.

Sri Lanka were tasked to chase 262 and following that, their batters failed to put up a disciplined show. Riding on the joint efforts of their bowlers, Bangladesh bundled out Sri Lanka on 124. Rahim got the Player of the Match award for his scintillating 144-run knock.