Dates 15 June – 24 June Cricket format One Day International Host(s) Sri Lanka | Administrator(s) Asian Cricket Council Tournament format(s) Round-robin, knockout Champions India (5th title) | |
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The 2010 Asia Cup was the tenth edition of the Asia Cup cricket tournament, which was held in Sri Lanka from 15–24 June 2010. Only the test playing nations India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh were taking part in the competition. India defeated Sri Lanka by 81 runs in the final to win a record 5th Asia Cup title. Pakistani captain, Shahid Afridi was declared the man of the tournament for scoring the most runs in the tournament, 265, with an average of 88.33 and a strike rate of 164.59.
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Trophy
The trophy was made of a combination of silver, gold, copper and brass with a silver finish with mat and gloss finish. It stands to communicate the strength, purity, humility and persistence that not only represents the four metals but also the four participating nations.
Venue
Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium was the only venue of Asia Cup 2010 as other stadiums in Sri Lanka, including the R. Premadasa Stadium, were undergoing renovation for the 2011 Cricket World Cup. All seven matches were Day/Night affairs.
Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium is a 16,800 seat cricket stadium in Sri Lanka. The Stadium is situated in the Central Province, close to Dambulla on a 60-acre (240,000 m²) site leased from the Rangiri Dambulla Temple. The stadium is built overlooking the Dambulla Tank (reservoir) and the Dambulla Rock.
Squads
The squads of the four teams participating in the tournament were announced in early June by the respective cricket boards.
Group stage
Each side played each other once in the group stages. The top 2 teams based on points at the end of the group stages meet each other in a one-off final. Each win yielded 4 points while a tie/no result yielded 1-point. A bonus point system was also in place, where a team could earn an extra point, in addition to the four received from a win, for a total of 5 points if they achieved victory using 80% or less of available overs or kept the opposition score to less than 80% of their own.
Table
Source
Matches
All times local (UTC+05:30)
Final
The final of the 2010 Asia Cup was played on 24 June 2010 in Dambulla between India and Sri Lanka. Indian captain MS Dhoni won the toss and elected to bat first. Gautam Gambhir and Dinesh Karthik gave India a promising start but Gambhir was soon dismissed at 30 with India reeling at 38/1. Then Virat Kohli and Karthik put up a partnership of 62 runs after which Kohli was caught by Kumar Sangakkara behind the wickets. The highest scorer for the Indian team was Karthik (66 off 84) followed by Rohit Sharma (41) and MS Dhoni (38). India managed to score 268/6 in their 50 overs with Sri Lanka needing 269 runs to win the championship.
Thilina Kandamby (2/37 in 7 overs) was the best in the bowling department for Sri Lanka, followed by Lasith Malinga who also took 2 wickets giving 57 runs in 10 overs.
The Sri Lankan batting started off to a slow start with Tillakaratne Dilshan caught in the first over. First five wickets fell off in quick succession within the score of 50 runs. Upul Tharanga, Mahela Jayawardene, Angelo Mathews and Kumar Sangakkara followed Dilshan soon after. After this, a promising partnership developed between Thilina Kandamby and Chamara Kapugedera (53 runs) which seemed to bring back Sri Lankan hopes in the match. But after the fall of this partnership, Sri Lanka never managed to recover and were all out for a score of 187 in 44.4 overs. India won the match by 81 runs, and with it, the Asia Cup after 15 years.
The Indian bowling attack was spearheaded by Ashish Nehra who took 4 wickets in 9 overs, followed by Ravindra Jadeja (2 wickets), Praveen Kumar (2 wickets) and Zaheer Khan (2 wickets).
Dinesh Karthik was declared the Man of the Match for his match winning innings of 66 off 84 balls while Pakistan's Shahid Afridi was declared Man of the Series for scoring 265 runs in 3 matches during the tournament.