How India and Pakistan Can Play Asia Cup 2022 Finals?
There is a lot of confusion about how the Asia Cup 2022 decides who plays in the finals. The Super 4 does not look as familiar as the usual Semis and Knock out that we are used to. The anticipation about if India will Pakistan in the finals is in everyone’s mind and we are here to clear everything out. Let’s see How India and Pakistan Can Play Asia Cup 2022 Finals?
The Asia Cup is split into two groups: A and B. Group A includes India, Pakistan, and Hong Kong. After defeating Pakistan and Hong Kong, India became the first team in the group to qualify for the Super 4s.
Even after suffering a loss against India, Pakistan made an explosive comeback. They thrashed Hong Kong by 155 runs to taste their biggest win by runs in T20I cricket. That game resulted in their qualification to the Super 4 too.
The two teams from Group A to qualify for Super 4 thus become India and Pakistan.
The top two teams from Group A are scheduled to face on Sunday, according to the tournament schedule. That means India will face Pakistan once more in less than a week.
Now, since the Super 4 is in itself a league, it does not work like how the usual Semi-finals do. Instead of a traditional semi-final phase, the teams from the two groups compete in another round robin phase. The top two teams will then face off in the tournament final. The points earned in the first group stage do not carry over to the Super Four stage.
That means all the teams will vouch to win all the next matches to qualify in the top two. OR the teams will try to win the rest two matches but with a good margin to amp up their run rate and land in the top two positions to qualify for finals.
India will play Pakistan on Sunday ie., the 4th of September. Then it will play Sri Lanka on the 6th and Afghanistan on the 8th. If India loses to Pakistan, it has to win the rest two matches anyhow.
Likewise, Pakistan will play Afghanistan on the 7th and Sri Lanka on the 9th. If it wins again India, it will have the cushion to go through one loss but not a big one and should ensure their win is by a good margin. That will land them in the top 2.
That means, between India and Pakistan, whoever loses or wins, must win their matches against Sri Lanka and Afghanistan by a good margin to ensure that they meet again for the finals.
This is assured because between Sri Lanka and Afghanistan, either one will lose a match and if handed one more defeat, they are out of contention for the finals.
Well, it looks like it was a lot of mixed matches but Asia Cup has a history of playing round robin than play knockout matches. It is just one of those tournaments and probably the hype around India and Pakistan has gotten us inquisitive to understand the format 😉 😛
