The father-son trap, coin-tosses, and the baseball cricketers

Bizarre numbers, massive mismatches and a dose of trivia from the Asian Games 2014

03-Oct-2014

Sri Lanka took gold after beating Bangladesh in a coin-toss in a rain-hit semi-final  •  Getty Images

0 Number of matches* that Kuwait men's team won to qualify for the quarter-finals of this Asian Games. They lost to Nepal and had their game against Maldives washed out. However, they were awarded the match based on a coin-toss.

6 Number of top-eight Sri Lanka batsmen who were dismissed for single figures in their Asian Games quarter-final against South Korea at the Yeonhui Cricket Ground. South Korea join Australia, South Africa and New Zealand as the only teams to have inflicted this fate on Sri Lanka.

58 The age of Bastaki Mahmoud, the Kuwait cricket team's captain at this Asian Games. His son, Bastaki Fahad, 23, is the vice-captain of the team. In Kuwait's quarter-final against Bangladesh, they came together to dismiss Tamim Iqbal, who pulled a waist-high full toss delivered by son Fahad straight to father Mahmoud at square leg.

20 The score for which Kuwait were bowled out against Nepal. They went exactly one better in the quarter-final against Bangladesh, where they scored 21. No Kuwait batsman reached double figures in either game. Kuwait lost the quarter-final by 203 runs. The biggest margin of victory in an official T20 is 172 - Sri Lanka v Kenya in the 2007 World T20.

4 Number of consecutive wickets that China's Zhong Wenyi took in as many balls, in their Group A match against South Korea. Wenyi took a wicket off the last ball of the eighth over and wickets of the first three balls of the tenth over. The only bowlers to take four wickets in four balls in official T20 cricket are Andre Russell and Al-Amin Hossain.

Baseball stances, and more coin-tosses

The manner in which the tournament was structured meant Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, the two top-ranked teams in the tournament, could not have faced off in the final. Both teams received a 'bye', and were straight through to the quarter-finals. The fixtures were such that they were slotted to meet each other in the semis if they won their respective quarter-final games, which they did. That semi-final was marred by rain, but Sri Lanka progressed to the final based on another coin-toss.

Some of South Korea's batsmen shaped up to face the bowling with a baseball-style stance, having their bats raised over their shoulders. This was not just a coincidence because, according to the Taipei Times, as many as seven of the 11 men that played - and lost - the opening match against Malaysia were baseball players - baseball is a passion in Korea, which won the gold medal in the event at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The cricket team was assembled especially for the Asian Games less than two years previously, with some of the players taking to the sport just six months before the games.

*Note: None of the matches at the Asian Games had official T20 status

Asian Games Men's Cricket Competition

Bishen Jeswant is a stats sub editor at ESPNCricinfo. @bishen_jeswant