The 2022 Asia Cup has been one for the history books, with every team showing off their skills. As the tournament nears its end, three teams, besides Sri Lanka, are still in the running to make it to the final, which is the most important game. Pakistan has the best chance of making it to the final of the mega-event, while India and Afghanistan are on the edge of making it.
So far in the tournament, Sri Lanka and Pakistan have been great. Sri Lanka has won both of its games in this round, beating both Afghanistan and India. Pakistan’s only win in the Super 4s stage was a shocking victory over India.
India’s two matches in the Super 4s stage have been disappointing, to say the least. They lost their first match against archrivals Pakistan, and then they lost their second match against Sri Lanka. Afghanistan, on the other hand, couldn’t keep up the momentum from the first round and lost to Sri Lanka in their only match of the second round so far.
With only three games left in the round, three teams still have a chance to make it to the final, but it might depend on how other games go.
Let’s look at the different things that could happen to each team:
Pakistan
For the Men in Green to make it to the final, they need to win one of their last two games. If the Green Shirts beat Afghanistan in tonight’s game, they will join Sri Lanka in the final. India and Afghanistan won’t be able to catch up to the top two teams in points, so they won’t be able to join them.
If Pakistan loses to Afghanistan, they will have to win against Sri Lanka and hope that Afghanistan doesn’t beat India by a large margin if they want to have a better net run rate.
If Pakistan loses its next two games, it will have to beat Afghanistan and have a better net run rate than both Afghanistan and Pakistan for Pakistan to win.
India
To get to the final of the mega-event, the Men in Blue will need a miracle. For them to get ahead of Pakistan and Afghanistan by a better net run rate, Pakistan must lose its last two games and Afghanistan must beat Pakistan by a large margin. If anything else goes wrong, they will be eliminated from the tournament.
Afghanistan
Afghanistan has two options if they want to make it to the Asia Cup final for the first time. Afghanistan will be in the final with Sri Lanka if they win their last two games against Pakistan and India. Afghanistan has a better run rate than both Pakistan and India, so if it wins against Pakistan, but loses to India, it will need Pakistan to lose by a big margin to Sri Lanka.
If Afghanistan loses to Pakistan, it will be eliminated from the tournament, and Pakistan and Sri Lanka will move on to the final.
