India's 6 memorable finals victories in Asia Cup

Asia Cup 2018 is underway and India are playing their opener against Hong Kong. The Asia Cup has always been a very memorable tournament for India and they have won the title a record 6-times.

Sri Lanka have won the title 5 times and is one of the most successful teams in the tournament. Albeit Virat Kohli is not part of this edition of the tournament, sky is the limit for the talent that the Indian team has.

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#1 India def. Sri Lanka and Pakistan, 1984

This was the first edition of the tournament and was held in the Round-Robin fashion. India beat Pakistan and Sri Lanka to win the title.

In their first game of the tournament, which was against Sri Lanka, Chetan Sharma and Madan Lal destroyed the opposition camp picking up 3 wickets each. Surinder Khanna scored a half-century in the run-chase.

In the second game, against arch-rivals Pakistan, India gave a target of 189 after batting first. In their run chase, 4 run outs spelled disaster for Pakistan as they were bundled out for just 134 runs. Ravi Shastri and Roger Binny picked up 3 wickets each.

#2 India def. Sri Lanka, 1988

India were pitted against Sri Lanka in the finals of the 1988 Asia Cup at Dhaka. After winning the toss, India chose to bowl first. Sri Lanka had a disastrous outing with the bat as they lost 4 wickets, because of run-out and managed to score a mere 176.

Chasing a low total of 177, India lost two wickets for 69 but the duo of Sidhu-Vengsarkar stitched a key 86-run partnership to take India home. Vengsarkar scored 50 off 81 and Sidhu scored 76 off 87.

Sidhu was rightly adjudged the Man of the Match and Sri Lanka once again lost in the finals to India.

#3 India def. Sri Lanka, 1990-91

India lost to neighbours Sri Lanka in the tournament when the two teams faced off in Cuttack. However, when both the teams faced each other in the finals in Kolkata, the result was different. India won the toss and chose to field first. Kapil Dev destroyed the Sri Lankan batting line up and picked up 4 wickets for only 31 runs in 9 overs and they managed to score a meagre 204.

When India came out to bat, they lost two wickets in the form of Ravi Shastri and Navjot Singh Sidhu and were left reeling at 30-2. However, Sanjay Manjrekar and Sachin built a crucial 91-run partnership for the third wicket before the latter got dismissed. Azharuddin then came out to bat and played a blazing innings, scoring 54 off 39 to take India home.

Azharuddin was awarded the Man of the Match award and India won their third Asia cup title - their second consecutive one.

#4 India def. Sri Lanka, 1995

After beating Sri Lanka and entering the finals, India were again up against Sri Lanka who came to the finals beating Pakistan. In the finals, India won the toss and chose to bowl first at Sharjah. The hosts lost wickets in regular intervals, but managed to score 230, thanks to Asanka Gurusinha's slow 85 off 122, with 2 fours and 3 sixes.

In reply, India managed to chase it down very easily, on the back of Sidhu's 84 off 106 and skipper's quick-fire 90 off 89. India finished the game in just 41.5 overs with 8 wickets remaining.

Azharuddin was awarded the Man of the Match while Sidhu took home the Man of the Series trophy for his 197 runs in 4 innings at an average of 98.5, which included 3 half-centuries.

#5 India def. Sri Lanka, 2010

In the finals of Asia Cup 2010, India won the toss and chose to bat first. Dinesh Karthik who came in as the opener went on to score 66 off 84 balls, accompanied by 9 fours. MS Dhoni and Rohit Sharma too made key-contributions in the middle order to take India to a defendable total of 268.

In return, no Sri Lankan batsman could get it going as Ashish Nehra ripped through the batting line up, picking up 4 wickets for just 40 runs in 9 overs. Zaheer Khan too came up big picking up 2 wickets, including the wicket of their star opener Upul Tharanga. The hosts got all-out for a paltry score of 187.

This was India's most recent Asia Cup title and Dinesh Karthik was adjudged the Man of the Match for his calculated knock.

#6 India def. Bangladesh, 2016

India reached the finals winning all their four games and were up against the hosts in the finals. This was the first and only Asia Cup to be held in T20 format. India won the toss and chose to bowl first in the finals which was restricted to only 15 overs because of rain. The hosts finished with 120/3 in 15 overs.

Chasing 121, India lost Rohit Sharma for just 1 off 5, but Virat Kohli came to the rescue and stitched a 94-run partnership with Dhawan to give India a memorable win. Kohli scored an unbeaten 41 off 28 balls while Dhoni too chipped in with 20 off just 6 balls, accompanied by 2 sixes and a four.

Shikhar Dhawan was awarded the Man of the Match for his quick-fire 60 off 44 balls with 9 fours and a six.