Cricket justifies its inclusion in the Asian Games
The debate regarding cricket’s inclusion in the Asian Games has been put to rest, finally. Detractors believed that the game was too lengthy to ask for an inclusion in the games but with the subsequent inclusion and obvious popularity of the Twenty20 international,
Cricket has proved the detractors wrong.
The top three teams of the Asian Games - http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Bangladesh-c747 which bagged gold, Afghanistan silver and Pakistan bronze - played amazing cricket throughout the tournament. What’s more, the games ended a day before the grand finale of the Asian Games, prompting officials
to think of staking claim for a place in Olympic Games in the future.
Although China is not a test playing nation, they had a ground that was presentable at Guangzhou, crowd that was sizeable and matches that were nothing short of entertaining. In their first match - the quarter final against hosts China - Pakistan captain Khalid
Latif blasted the first and only century of the event. His innings comprised of 8 fours and 5 sixes, and he reached the 3-figure mark off just 69 balls. He faltered in the next match - the semi final against Afghanistan - which Pakistan lost and was made to
face Sri Lanka for the bronze medal. Pakistan outplayed the islanders in the knockout match to win the bronze medal and end on the podium.
Pakistan should be indebt to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Usman-Qadir-c94698, son
of spin legend Abdul Qadir.
On the other hand, their opponents in the bronze-medal match were a side that had as many as 11 international cricketers. http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Jehan-Mubarak-c66822, Gayan Wijekoon, Malinga Bandra and Nuwan Zoysa had represented Sri Lanka one time or another and they would clearly have
won, had they not succumbed to pressure. They were asked to bat first and after posting 135, their bowlers lost the plan and were belted to all parts of the ground. Pakistan reached the target in the 18th over and claimed a medal to finish 3rd in the event.
The Indian side preferred to stay home rather than sending a team to http://www.senore.com/Cricket/China-c40996 for unknown reasons. Rumour is that they did so to show their protest against the WADA regulations, but there is no confirmation to this. Their absence was felt particularly in the final
where Bangladesh took over surprise finalists Afghanistan. Coached by former http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Rashid-Latif-c84084, the Afghanis lost the battle of nerves due to their inexperience. They had toppled Pakistan in the semis for a place in the grand
finale, but they couldn’t repeat the performance against Mohammad Ashraful’s men.
Bangladesh had nothing to lose when they went into the final. They were not expected to win the gold medal because in their history of nearly 40 years, they had never managed one. They had defeated http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Sri-Lanka-c758 self destructed
in the semi final match against them. Their win was a mixture of ‘old is gold‘ and ‘fiery young blood‘ since it was 19-year-old Shabbir Rahman who smashed two sixes in the penultimate over to seal the win, and it was the veteran of over 50 tests and 150 one
dayers Ashraful who took 2 wickets in one over to put the brakes on http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Afghanistan-c745’s flight.
Chasing 119 to win, Bangladesh almost never made it to the target as they lost 5 wickets for 75, including that of skipper Mohammad Ashraful. But http://www.senore.com/Cricket/Shabbir-Rahman-c89251 had other ideas who blasted the required 19 runs off the last 2 overs (17 off Karim
Sadiq’s penultimate over) and earned a gold medal that had eluded them for a long time. Bangladesh has not been a country known for his heroics in sports, but the way they played in the Asian Games is commendable. Same can be said for the way the event was
organised. One hopes that in the future, the game of cricket finds a permanent place as a discipline of the mega events.
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