India wins Asia Cup after beating Pakistan, celebrates without trophy after drama

Sports Desk

India were forced to celebrate their Asia Cup win without the trophy after a dramatic incident after defeating arch-rivals Pakistan by five wickets in Dubai.

The awards ceremony was marred by chaos when Asian Cricket Council (ACC) Chairman Mohsin Naqvi left the stage before the trophy could be handed over to the champion team. While other guests presented individual awards to players from both teams, the main trophy was taken backstage.

The situation was not normalised even after an hour of the match as the trophy was still not handed over to the Indian players.
According to sources in the Indian team, the players refused to accept the trophy directly from Naqvi. Initially, while the Pakistan team players were in the dressing room, the Indian team was on the field.

After both teams arrived, the guests came on stage, but the ceremony did not proceed any further. Shortly after, Naqvi and his team left with the trophy, which sparked controversy.
However, India continued their celebrations by holding individual awards – an unusual sight in any sport. Indian opener Abhishek Sharma was awarded the Player of the Tournament award. He scored 314 runs at an average of 44.85 in seven matches. The Player of the Final award went to Tilak Verma, who played a brilliant innings of 69 not out.

In the final, India defeated Pakistan by 146 runs with two balls to spare and won by 5 wickets.