Overview of 15th Edition of DP World T20 Asia Cup 2022; Sri Lanka Won

The 15th Edition of DP World T20 Asia Cup 2022 tournament with cricket format of Twenty20 International (T20I) was held between August 27 – September 11, 2022 in United Arab Emirates (UAE). It was held at two venues of UAE viz. Dubai International Cricket Stadium (Dubai), and Sharjah Cricket Stadium (Sharjah).

• The Championship title was grabbed by Sri Lanka by beating Pakistan in the finals with 23 runs. It was its 6th Asia Cup title, and 1st in the T20I format.
• This tournament was originally scheduled in September 2020 but was postponed amid COVId-19 pandemic.
• The next edition i.e. 16th will be hosted by Pakistan in 2023.

Prize Money:

Sri Lanka received an approximate amount of Rs 1,59,53,000 ($150,000) as prize money, while runners-up Pakistan received an amount of Rs 79,66,000 ($75,000).

Hosts:

It should be noted that the tournament was played in Dubai, but Sri Lanka Cricket (SLC) served as the tournament’s host while the administrator was Asian Cricket Council (ACC).

• SLC was supposed to organize this tournament but due to economic and political crisis, it was unable to host in Sri Lanka.

Key Points:

i.A total of 6 nations participated in the tournament viz. Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Hong Kong, India, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka.

• India team was led by its Captain Rohit Sharma.

ii.A total of 13 matches played viz. 9 at Dubai International Cricket Stadium; and 4 at Sharjah Cricket Stadium

iii.Sri Lanka won  5 matches in the tournament.

iv.Notably, Afghanistan was the only team in the tournament to defeat the Sri Lankan Team.Awards:

Highlights of Asia Cup 2022:

i.India defeated Pakistan by 5 wickets in its opening Asia Cup T20 match

India won its opening matching against Pakistan by defeating the latter with 5 wickets. The match was Virat Kohli’s 100th T20 international game.

• With this, Virat Kohli becomes the first Indian to play 100 matches in all three formats.

ii.India lost to SL in T20 Asia Cup for 1st time and failed to qualify for Super-4

Sri Lanka defeated India by six wickets in their Asia Cup 2022 Super 4 stage match. This was India’s first defeat against Sri Lanka in T20 Asia Cup history.  This resulted in the disqualification of India in the Super 4 stage.

iii.Virat Kohli becomes batter with highest average in T20I cricket, overtakes Pakistan’s Mohammed Rizwan

During a T20I between India and Hong Kong, Indian cricketer Virat Kohl became the player with the highest average in the T20I format of cricket. He has scored 3,402 runs in T20Is at an average of 50.77. He has 31 half-centuries in the format, with the best individual score of 94. He has a strike rate of 137.12.

• He has overtaken Pakistani batter Mohammed Rizwan, who has an average of 50.14 in 57 matches.
• They are followed by Devon Conway of New Zealand (average of 47.20 in 23 matches), star Pakistan batter Babar Azam (average of 44.93 in 75 matches) and Indian batter Manish Pandey (average of 44.31 in 39 matches).

iv.Virat Kohli crosses 300 fours in T20I

Virat Kohli while playing his 100th T20I match against Pakistan broke a record of scoring 300 T20I fours. Although, he is not the first one to reach that milestone as Paul Stirling of Ireland holds the record for 344 fours while India’s skipper Rohit Sharma has struck 313 fours.

v.Rohit Sharma overtakes Virat Kohli to become India’s second most-successful T20I captain

Rohit Sharma has surpassed Virat Kohli as India’s second most successful captain in the T20I format after the win against Hong Kong. He achieved the feat by winning his 31st T20I as the skipper of the team in his 37th outing.

• Virat Kohli achieved 30 wins from his 50 matches as the India captain.
• The first one is Mahendra Singh (MS) Dhoni, who has helped India win 41 T20I matches under his captaincy from 72 matches.

vi.Rohit Sharma becomes first player to score 3500 runs in T20I matches

India captain Rohit Sharma became the first player to score 3500 runs in T20I history. He achieved this feat during a match against Hong kong.

vii.Virat Kohli breaks Rohit Sharma’s record of fastest to 3500 T20I runs

During a match between India and Afghanistan, Virat Kohli broke Rohit Sharma’s record by crossing 3500-run mark in T20I by smashing his 71st century. With this, he became the only second batsman after Rohit Sharma to go past 3500 T20I runs. During the match he remained unbeaten on 122* off 61 balls.

• Notably, Viraat Kohli achieved this in a record time. He is the fastest to strike 3500 T20I runs, taking 96 innings while Rohit Sharma completed this in 125 innings.
• His average is 51 while Rohit Sharma’s is 32.

viii.Ravindra Jadeja becomes India’s most successful Bowler in Asia Tournament History

Ravindra Jadeja becomes India’s most successful bowler or India’s highest wicket-taker in the history of the Asia Cup tournament. He also accomplished this feat during a match against Hong Kong. He has 23 wickets across 6 Asia Cup tournaments held from 2010 to 2022.

• With this, he overtook former Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan, who has 22 wickets.

ix.Rashid Khan becomes bowler with second-highest wickets in T20I

Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan became the second-highest wicket-taker in the T20I format during Afghanistan’s match against Sri Lanka. He now has 115 wickets in 68 T20Is.

• The leading wicket-taker in T20Is is Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan (122), followed by Rashid (115), Tim Southee of New Zealand (114), Sri Lankan great Lasith Malinga (107) and New Zealand’s Ish Sodhi (99).

x.Bhuvneshwar Kumar breaks record for taking most wickets for India against Pakistan in T20I

India’s fast bowler Bhuvneshwar Kumar broke the record for taking most wickets for India against Pakistan in T20I cricket history. Now, he has a tally of T20I wickets against Pakistan to nine. He is followed by Hardik Pandya (7 wickets) and Irfan Pathan (6 wickets).

xi.Bhuvneshwar Kumar Becomes India’s most successful bowler in T20Is

He also became India’s most successful bowler in T20Is by overtaking Yuzvendra Chahal, who has 83 wickets. Now, Bhuvneshwar Kumar has 84 wickets in T20Is.

• Bhuvneshwar Kumar has done this in 77 matches while Yuzvendra Chahal has done in 66 games.
• Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is the leading wicket-taker in T20Is with 122 wickets.

xii.Indian Fast bowlers take all 10 wickets for India in a T20I match for the first time in history

During the India-Pakistan Asia Cup 2022 match, Indian bowlers took all 10 wickets for India in a T20I innings for the first time in the history of T20I matches for India.

• Bhuvneshwar Kumar took four wickets, Hardik Pandya took three wickets, Arshdeep Singh took two wickets and Avesh Khan picked one wicket.

Static Information:

i.India is the most successful team of Asia Cup with seven titles (six ODI and one T20I).

• India won the last edition (14th) of Asia Cup in 2018 in ODI format.

ii.Sri Lanka has played the most Asia Cups (14) followed by India, Pakistan and Bangladesh who have played 13 each.

iii.Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya made the most runs in the Asia Cup (1220).

iv.Sri Lanks’s Muttiah Muralitharan is the most wicket taker of Asia Cup (30).

v.Asia’s Cup’s first edition was also held in Sharjah, UAE in 1984, and it was won by India.

vi.Rohit Sharma is first Indian to feature in seven series of the tournament as he is featuring in all Asia Cup editions since 2008.