Pakistan are the winners of the ODI tri-series. On Saturday night, 31 October 2026, they chased down 326 against Sri Lanka at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore and won the final by three wickets with nine balls to spare. Fakhar Zaman made a superb 127, Arafat Minhas hit a 31 ball 61 that swung the game, and captain Shaheen Shah Afridi finished it with a six. It was a loud, happy end to two weeks of good cricket.
Sri Lanka scored 325 for 8 in their 50 overs, and Pakistan replied with 331 for 7 in 48.3 overs. Fakhar was named Player of the Match, and Minhas was named Player of the Series.
Pakistan chose to bowl first, and for most of the innings, that choice did not look like a good one. Kamindu Mendis played with a lot of patience early, scoring only 18 off his first 29 balls, and then began to open up. He added 87 with Avishka Fernando for the first wicket, and then shared a 146 run stand off 119 balls with Pavan Rathnayake. Kamindu reached his first ODI hundred and finished with 131, while Rathnayake smashed 77 off 65 balls. At the end of the 41st over, Sri Lanka were 255 for 2, and a total near 350 seemed possible.
Then it all changed. Afridi trapped Kamindu lbw as he missed a sweep, and the rest of the batting followed quickly. Dasun Shanaka was caught at long-on, Rathnayake picked out the straight boundary off Haris Rauf, and Sri Lanka lost five wickets for just 28 runs. Afridi, Rauf and Naseem Shah took two wickets each, and Salman Ali Agha took two as well, so Sri Lanka ended on 325 for 8. Afridi's ten overs cost only 50 runs, and they proved to be a big difference in the match. Rathnayake, who finished the series with 427 runs at a strike rate of 122.70, was the leading run-scorer by a long way.
The start of the chase was awful. Dilshan Madushanka took the new ball and had both Maaz Sadaqat and Babar Azam caught at slip, so Pakistan were 14 for 2. He later removed Fakhar too, and he ended as the best bowler on the day with 3 for 63.
Fakhar and Saad Baig then rebuilt the innings. Their third wicket stand was worth 149 runs, and it brought the target within reach. Baig scored a solid 74 off 75 balls. Fakhar took 52 balls to reach his fifty, but after that, he went through the gears, scoring his next 75 runs in only 40 balls. He reached his 12th ODI hundred in 84 balls, and 72 of his 127 runs came on the leg side.
He was not flawless. Maheesh Theekshana dropped a hard chance when Fakhar was on 69, and another catch nearly went into the fielder's hands near the rope. Dew had also settled on the outfield, which made the ball difficult to grip and the fielding messy for Sri Lanka. Fakhar finally fell in the 34th over, with Pakistan still needing 106 runs, but the required rate had come down below 6.5 for the last 16.5 overs.
The middle of the innings was tense. Pakistan went through a spell of nine overs without a single boundary, and the match was open again. Then Arafat Minhas walked out at number seven and played one of the smartest innings of the series.
He took 14 balls to find his feel, hitting no boundaries at all. When the 42nd over ended and the dew became heavy, he took off. He scored 48 runs from his last 17 balls with four sixes and three fours, including a huge check drive over long-on off Madushanka. When Pakistan needed 18 from 18, he hit two sixes and a four off Asitha Fernando, and he fell with the team two runs away from victory. He and Hasan Nawaz shared 94 off 65 balls for the sixth wicket, which was the partnership that decided the game.
Afridi, fittingly, hit the winning runs, sending Madushanka over deep midwicket for six. It was Pakistan's joint-highest successful chase in an ODI final.
Minhas finished the series with 149 runs and nine wickets, a fine reward for a 21 year old who has only just started his international career. Pakistan also ended the long wait for an ODI tri-series trophy, as their last one came back in 2008 at the Kitply Cup in Bangladesh.
Pakistan's top order is still a concern, since Babar Azam and the openers were out of form again, but the team has found a lower order that wins matches and a bowling attack that holds its nerve. With the 50 over World Cup coming next year, this tournament has given them a lot to build on. Sri Lanka also leave with credit, especially Rathnayake and Kamindu, who showed they have batters who can score big in any conditions.
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