A tournament with a team missing
The second Asia Cup was awarded to Sri Lanka and played over eight days at the end of March 1986. It should have had the same three sides as the first, but India pulled out. Cricketing relations between the two boards had deteriorated, and rather than reduce the field to two the Asian Cricket Council invited Bangladesh, who had earned the place by winning the South-East Asian tournament staged in Dhaka in January 1984, ahead of Singapore and Hong Kong.
That decision matters more in retrospect than it did at the time. Bangladesh were an associate member without a Test future anybody was seriously discussing, and the three matches they played in Sri Lanka were their first One Day Internationals. They lost both of theirs comfortably, but the tournament had opened a door that stayed open: Bangladesh have appeared in every Asia Cup since.
Pakistan first, Sri Lanka last
Pakistan, under Imran Khan, were the better side for most of the week. They opened by bowling Sri Lanka out for 116 in a 45-over match at the Saravanamuttu Stadium, Manzoor Elahi taking 3 for 22 and Ravi Ratnayeke's earlier 3 for 32 counting for nothing. The following day at Moratuwa they dismissed Bangladesh for 94, Wasim Akram taking 4 for 19 at the age of 19, and won with almost 13 overs left.
Sri Lanka's only group win came at Kandy, where Bangladesh made 131 for 8 from their 45 overs and Asanka Gurusinha's unbeaten 44 saw the hosts home. It was enough to take second place and a final against a Pakistan side that had beaten both of them.
The final
At the Sinhalese Sports Club on 6 April, Pakistan batted first and made 191 for 9. Javed Miandad held the innings together with 67 from 100 balls; Kaushik Amalean, a fast bowler with a short international career, took 4 for 46. Sri Lanka's reply was built on Arjuna Ranatunga, who made 57 from 55 balls in the middle order. Abdul Qadir took 3 for 32 and finished the tournament with nine wickets, more than anyone, but Sri Lanka got there with two and a half overs to spare.
It was Sri Lanka's first Asia Cup and, coming four years after they were admitted as a Test nation, an early sign that they could beat the region's established sides at home. Ranatunga's 105 runs made him the leading scorer as well as player of the tournament, though the figures across a four-match event are slight. Miandad, on the losing side, was man of the match in the final.