Team India often start favourites in limited overs cricket irrespective of where the series is played, but it was not quite the case in the Asia Cup as Pakistan was the more fancied side with their experience of the conditions in UAE and the depth in their squad was thought to be better than all the other sides in the tournament. 

As is often the case in cricket, what you expect does not always happen. Pakistan flopped miserably in the tournament, only beating Hong Kong and barely getting past Afghanistan in a thrilling last-over encounter. They were hammered by India twice and Bangladesh knocked them out in the must-win virtual semi-final.

India on the other hand had an average start against Hong Kong, who gave the 2-time World Champions a run for their money. With a bit of luck and some experience, Hong Kong could have caused one of the biggest upsets in history. India managed to hold on that night and got better and better as the tournament progressed, staying unbeaten until the dead rubber against Afghanistan. India seemed out of the contest for a short time but came back to tie the game to keep their unbeaten record intact.

Sri Lanka came and went before anyone could take notice of the former World Champions. It was their worst Asia Cup campaign losing to Afghanistan and Bangladesh by massive margins. Angelo Mathews lost his captaincy and spot in the ODI side for the series against England.

Bangladesh surprised many with their grit and fight as they made the final despite losing Tamim Iqbal and Shakib-Al-Hasan during the course of the tournament. Even in the final, the underdogs fought hard with opener Liton Das scoring 121, but failed to put a up a testing target for India, who did well to pick up 10 wickets for 102 runs to limit Bangladesh to only 222.

India's openers got off to good starts but failed to cash on for the first time in the tournament leaving the vulnerable middle order under pressure. Dinesh Karthik and MS Dhoni scored 30's but failed to finish off the job. Kedar Jadhav battled a hamstring injury to help India go past the target on the final ball after Ravindra Jadeja and Bhuvneshwar Kumar got them close.

India won the Asia Cup for the 7th time and it was a time to celebrate for the team as it was a hard earned victory in extreme weather conditions. Some of the team members reflected back on the final in a video posted by BCCI on their twitter handle. Here is the video: