Asia Cup Cricket 2008: Bangladesh Playing Against UAE

Asian Cup Cricket 2008 kicks off on 24 June 2008 with two matches scheduled to take place in the opening day of the tournament. In the Group A match, Bangladesh takes on United Arab Emirates (UAE) at the Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore. The match begins at 16:00 (local time) and 10:00 (GMT).

There is no doubt, Bangladesh is favorite in the match and they will definitely go in to the match with the hope of winning the match in style, while UAE will initially look to play as much well as possible in the match, if not causing an upset against out-of-form Bangladesh side. Sri Lanka is the other team in Group A.

All the three teams of each group will play against each other once in the group stage and then the top two sides will go into the super four. So, Bangladesh will go into the match knowing that a defeat to UAE would take them on the verge of elimination from the group stage in what would be a humiliation for Bangladesh. However, if they can reach the super four, Bangladesh will definitely look for one or two inspirational victories as they did in the last world cup tournament.

United Arab Emirates, on the other hand, has nothing to lose against Bangladesh, rather has everything to win in their way. They come into the tournament as the winner of ACC Cup 2006, and they might seek inspiration from their ACC Cup triumph to show their best against Bangladesh. Now, let us see if Bangladesh can secure an easy victory or UAE shows something special in the match.

Asia Cup Cricket 2008 Schedule/Fixture

If you want to get the online live score and updates of India vs Pakistan Super Four match of Asian Cup 2008, the visit the following link:

India vs Pakistan Asia Cup Super Four: Live Score and Updates

Asia Cup Cricket 2008 begins from 24 June 2008 in Pakistan. This is the ninth edition of Asia’s biggest cricket tournament. The tournament was supposed to be held in 2006, but due to packed ICC schedule, the tournament did not take place. For the first time, Pakistan is going to host an Asian Cup this year. All the matches will take place in two venues: Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore and National Stadium, Karachi.

There are six teams taking part in this tournament including four test playing teams of Asia: Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. Besides these test playing teams, two Associate members of ACC (Asian Cricket Council) - United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) and Hong Kong. Both the teams got into the tournament as the two finalists of ACC Cup 2006. U.A.E. won the ACC Cup 2006 title, while Hong Kong was runner up.

Asia Cup Cricket 2008 Tournament Format
The whole tournament is divided into three parts- Group Stage, Super Four and Final. In the group stage, six teams are divided into two groups (Group A and B) of three teams each. In each group, three teams will play against each other in a round robin league system. Top two teams from each group, in terms of points achieved, will progress to the Super Four.

Group A Teams: Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and United Arab Emirates

Group B Teams: India, Pakistan and Hong Kong

In the super four stage, all the four teams will play against each other in a round robin league system. After that, the top two teams in terms of their points gained will face each other in the final on 6 June 2008. So, the 13-day long tournament will be completed with 6 July’s grand final. All of the matches of Asia Cup Cricket 2008 will be day/night.

Asia Cup Cricket 2008 Squads
Here, I am giving the list of the squads of all six participating teams. Pakistan has announced 20-man probable squad and final squad will be unveiled on 22 June 2008. The other five squads are 15-man squad finalized for Asia Cup 2008. If you are interested to get an overall view of the squad of all participating teams then click here.

Pakistan Squad for Asia Cup 2008 (Probable)
Shoaib Malik (Captain), Misbah-ul-Haq, Bazid Khan, Fawad Alam, Iftikhar Anjum, Mohammad Yousuf, Nasir Jamshed, Abdur Rauf, Naumanullah, Salman Butt, Shahid Afridi, Sohail Khan, Sohail Tanvir, Umar Gul, Wahab Riaz, Younis Khan, Sarfraz Ahmed, Yasir Hameed, Mansoor Amjad, Saeed Ajmal

India Squad for Asian Cup 2008
Mahendra Singh Dhoni (capt & wk), Yuvraj Singh, Robin Uthappa, Gautam Gambhir, Virender Sehwag, Rohit Sharma, Suresh Raina, Yusuf Pathan, Irfan Pathan, Sreesanth, Ishant Sharma, Praveen Kumar, RP Singh, Piyush Chawla, Pragyan Ojha.

**First bowler Sreesanth has been ruled out of the tournament as he is yet to recover from his injury. Manpreet Gony is expected to replace him in the squad for Asia Cup 2008 cricket tournament.

Bangladesh Squad for Asia Cup 2008
Mohammad Ashraful (c), Mashrafe Mortaza (vc), Abdur Razzak, Alok Kapali, Dolar Mahmud, Farhad Reza, Mahmudullah, Mehrab Hossain jnr, Mosharraf Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Nazimuddin, Raqibul Hasan, Shahadat Hossain, Shahriar Nafees, Tamim Iqbal

Sri Lanka Squad for Asia Cup 2008
Mahela Jayawardene (captain), Kumar Sangakkara (vice-captain), Sanath Jayasuriya, Mahela Udawatte, Tillakaratne Dilshan, Chamara Silva, Chamara Kapugedera, Kaushal Weeraratne, Farveez Maharoof, Chaminda Vaas, Dilhara Fernando, Muthiah Muralitharan, Ajantha Mendis, Jehan Mubarak, Nuwan Kulasekera.

Hong Kong Squad for Asia Cup 2008
Tabarak Dar (c), Afzaal Haider, Ashish Gadhia, James Atkinson, Toby Brown, Hussain Butt, Irfan Ahmed, Courtney Kruger, Roy Lamsam, Munir Dar, Nadeem Ahmed, Najeeb Amar, Skhawat Ali, Waqas Barkat, Zain Abbas.

United Arab Emirates Squad for Asia Cup 2008
Arshad Ali (c), Saqib Ali (vc), Fahad Alhashmi, Alawi Shukri, Aman Ali, Amjad Ali (wk), Amjad Javed, Indika Batuwitarachchi, Nizel Fernandes, Khurram Khan, Mohammad Tauqir, Salman Farooq, Vikrant Shetty, Shadeep Silva, Zahid Shah.

Asia Cup Cricket 2008 is expected to be an exciting tournament with the presence of three former world cup winning teams. India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka are the most favorites in the tournament, while Bangladesh could cause one or two upsets. However, it is true that cricket fans are not expecting more from the two underdogs U.A.E. and Hong Kong. However, the four test playing countries do not know much about the two associate members of ACC and that is what could not a problem for the big teams. Some inspirational performance from unfancied U.A.E and Hong Kong could add some extra spice in the tournament. Now, let us see if Cricket fans can experience an exciting Asia Cup tournament.

Asia Cup 2008 Schedule

Stage	Date	Competing Teams	Time	Venue
Group Stage	24 June 2008 Tuesday	Bangladesh vs United Arab Emirates	Local16:00 GMT 10:00	Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
		Pakistan vs Hong Kong	Local17:00 GMT 11:00	National Stadium, Karachi
	25 June 2008 Wed	Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka	Local16:00 GMT 10:00	Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
		Hong Kong vs India	Local17:00 GMT 11:00	National Stadium, Karachi
	26 June 2008 Thursday	Sri Lanka vs United Arab Emirates	Local16:00 GMT 10:00	Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore
		India vs Pakistan	Local17:00 GMT 11:00	National Stadium, Karachi
Super Four	28 June 2008 Saturday	Bangladesh vs India	Local17:00 GMT 11:00	National Stadium, Karachi
	29 June 2008 Sunday	Pakistan vs Sri Lanka	Local17:00 GMT 11:00	National Stadium, Karachi
	30 June 2008 Monday	Bangladesh vs Sri Lanka	Local17:00 GMT 11:00	National Stadium, Karachi
	2 July 2008 Wed	Pakistan vs India	Local17:00 GMT 11:00	National Stadium, Karachi
	3 July 2008 Tuesday	India vs Sri Lanka	Local17:00 GMT 11:00	National Stadium, Karachi
	4 July 2008 Friday	Pakistan vs Bangladesh	Local17:00 GMT 11:00	National Stadium, Karachi
Final Match	6 July 2008 Sunday	Top Two Teams of Super Four Stage	Local17:00 GMT 11:00	National Stadium, Karachi

Source:

Cricinfo