The on-going edition of the Asia Cup, being played in Bangladesh is the 12th edition. The first Asia Cup was played in the year 1984 and was hosted by the UAE. The very first edition was won by India and the island nation of Sri Lanka was the runner-up. Since then India has been the most successful team in the Asia Cup winning the title as many as five times.

India has successfully defended the two times – winning the Cup three times in a row – in 1988, 1990 and 1995. And interestingly, India beat Sri Lanka on all the occasions. However, the editions of 2004 and 2008 proved to be quite memorable for Sri Lanka as on both instances they defeated India.

Even a cricket crazy nation like India has hosted the Asia Cup only once – in the 1990-91 season. Since then India has been a participating nation and no hosting has comes her way. However, Bangladesh has hosted the Cup the most number of times – four, including the current edition.

There have been two instances when the final matches of the Cup have proved to be a one-sided affair. The first was when India beat Sri Lanka by eight wickets in the 1995 Asia Cup. Sri Lanka won the next edition by the same margin co-incidentally beating India.

The most convincing victory, in terms of runs has been for Sri Lanka. That was when Sri Lanka defeated India by exactly 100 runs in the 2008 edition played in Pakistan. Sri Lanka had scored 273 runs and India folded their innings on 173 runs. The island nation was dismissed in 49.5 overs, while the Indian innings came to an end in a more tedious fashion in 39.3 overs.

Though Bangladesh hosted the trophy the most number of times, they haven’t yet won it. The best for them was a runners-up position in the previous edition in 2012. The final was pretty exciting as Bangladesh lost the match to Pakistan by just two runs. Pakistan had scored 236 runs, while Bangladesh managed just about 234 runs.

Afghanistan is the new entrant in this edition. Hong Kong and United Arab Emirates have played two Asia Cup tournaments so far.

Article Posted By : abhi_bangal  On February 26, 2014lView All Articles

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http://www.veethi.com/articles/a-short-history-of-the-acc-asia-cup-article-2988.htm

Keywords :
ACC Asia Cup , History of the ACC Asia Cup