AUGUST 31, 2022
Dubai: Asia Cup got underway on the weekend with Afghanistan beating Sri Lanka on 27 August. The Afghans won by 8 wickets in the tournament opener. Afghanistan added a second win by beating Bangladesh in the third match of the T20I competition. In so doing, Afghanistan have qualified for the Super 4 stage.
In between these two fixtures, India got their campaign up and going with a 5-wicket win over Pakistan. The win came courtesy Hardik Pandya with two balls to spare.
In their second fixture, India defeated Hong Kong by 40 runs to top Group A and confirm their berth in Super 4 of the tournament.
After the group stage, comprising six teams, the countries will move on to the Super 4 stage with top-two teams from both groups advancing. India, Pakistan, and Hong Kong have been drawn into Group A while Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and Afghanistan make up Group B.
As things stand, India lead Group A with four points, while Pakistan and Hong Kong have zero. In the other group, Afghanistan have four points from two games to stand in the lead. Bangladesh are second and Sri Lanka third with net run rate being the difference maker.
The Super 4 stage will have all the teams playing against each other once. The top two teams from this stage will play in the final on 11 September.
We take a look at how things stand in the Asia Cup points table:
Group A
| Country | Matches | Won | Lost | Points | NRR |
| India | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | +1.096 |
| Pakistan | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -0.175 |
| Hong Kong | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -2.000 |
Group B
| Country | Matches | Won | Lost | Points | NRR |
| Afghanistan | 2 | 2 | 0 | 4 | +2.467 |
| Bangladesh | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -0.731 |
| Sri Lanka | 1 | 0 | 1 | 0 | -5.176 |
