It’s been four decades since the Asia Cup was first set up in 1984, a tournament where the top Asian teams could battle it out for supremacy. And while the tides have turned a lot over the years, India remains the most successful team in the history of the Asia Cup. Today, we’ll take you back to an spectacular innings which was the only century in India’s winning campaign at Asia Cup 1990/91.
This knock came from the willow of a young and tall batsman known as Navjot Singh Sidhu, who we know better today as a commentator, TV show judge, and politician, who sees himself in trouble more often than not. But on Christmas Day that year (25th Dec 1990), all he did was give trouble to the opposition, scoring his one and only Asia Cup century, also becoming the first Indian to do so in this tournament.
Navjot Singh Sidhu 104* vs Bangladesh
India was hosting the tournament which was the fourth edition of the Asia Cup and this game was being played at the Sector 16 Stadium in Chandigarh, where Bangladesh elected to bat first after winning the toss. They could only manage 170/6 in their 50 overs because the Indian bowlers were on top of their prime, and Bangladesh wasn’t very competitive all those years ago, as they are today.
Faruque Ahmed scored a painstaking 57(126) while Athar Ali Khan (today a commentator) missed out on a fifty himself by a few runs. On the other hand, the Indian bowlers were very disciplined and both of Venkatapathy Raju and new ball bowler Kapil Dev picked up 2 wickets each. And this score wasn’t going to be very challenging for a good Indian top order.
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Woorkeri Raman and Navjot Singh Sidhu walked out as the opening batters for India and while the former was dismissed for a well-made 44, there was no stopping Sidhu on this day. While his partner’s strike rate was in the forties, Sidhu hit 104(109)* which was a very good scoring rate for the earl 1990s in international cricket.
He hit 10 fours and 3 sixes on his way to an ODI century and a well-deserved one too. Navjot Sidhu was always a very flamboyant batsman and it was all on display at Chandigarh on that day. Sanjay Manjrekar only needed to come out and score 11* as India got over the line by 9 wickets and they didn’t even need the likes of Mohammed Azharuddin, Kapil, Sachin Tendulkar, and others who were waiting in the shed.
In the three editions prior to this, only two other Asia Cup centuries were scored, both by Pakistani batsmen in the same innings against Bangladesh in Asia Cup 1988. So yes, the first three centuries in this tournament all came against Bangladesh as well. Sidhu was rightly adjudged man of the match for this game-dominating knock of 104*, which remained one of six ODI centuries scored during his career!
(14) Best batting average in ODI Asia Cup (min: 10 inn):-
66.3 – Navjot Sidhu
64.8 – MS DHONI
61.3 – Virat Kohli
60.8 – Suresh Raina
58.5 – Mohammad AzharuddinBoth the players who retired recently were exceptional in the Asia Cup. pic.twitter.com/HIRH33J1ft
— Kausthub Gudipati (@kaustats) August 18, 2020
He was player of the series in two different Asia Cup tournaments and played a key role for India during those years. As you can see above, he ended as one of the top performing batsmen for India in this tournament, even so many years after his retirement. For similar sports and cricket updates from around the world, stay tuned to ReadScoops.com…
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