Pakistan 331 for 7 (Fakhar 127, Baig 74, Minhas 61, Madushanka 3-63) beat Sri Lanka 325 for 8 (Kamindu 131, Rathnayake 77, Agha 2-44, Afridi 2-50) by three wickets
Where Sri Lanka and Pakistan’s top orders largely canceled each other out, Kamindu and Pavan Rathnayake’s third-wicket partnership of 146 runs from 119 balls was very similar to stand between Fakhar and Baig. Instead, it was contributions from Pakistan’s lower-order batters that saw them overcome Sri Lanka. Where Sri Lanka’s batting withered after Kamindu’s dismissal, losing five wickets for 28 runs, Minhas and Hasan Nawaz clobbered 94 off 65 deliveries for the sixth wicket to essentially seal victory for Pakistan.
On another track suited to batting, Pakistan’s quicks also shone collectively in the final nine overs of Sri Lanka’s innings. Afridi, Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah took two wickets each, as Afridi collected excellent figures of 2 for 50 from his ten overs.
Pakistan did have a significant advantage in bowling and fielding first, however. Significant dew settled on the Lahore outfield late in the evening, hampering Sri Lanka’s bowling and fielding. That Fakhar was dropped on 69 in the 25th over by Maheesh Theekshana – it was a tough chance – did not help, but there were also many ground fielding errors which seemed to compound as Pakistan got closer to the target, and the dew became more pronounced.
Fakhar lived dangerously but paced his innings of 127 off 99 balls beautifully, and forged the kinds of brisk, substantial partnerships that big chases thrive on. His first boundary was a six that touched the fingertips of Madushanka at deep third, as the latter couldn’t quite haul it in. The dropped catch to Theekshana in the 25th over was another difficult chance. Later, in the 32nd over, Theekshana got another hand to a potential catch from Fakhar but had to trod on the boundary and would have struggled to get a hand on it if he hadn’t.
But in any case, Fakhar had done just enough to avoid giving more straightforward catches to Sri Lanka’s fielders. And in between, he struck brutal boundaries. Fakhar was productive on the leg side as usual, with 72 of his 127 runs coming in that direction. The arc between fine leg and midwicket proved particularly fruitful for him. He swept beautifully, pulled with conviction, and though he was occasionally forced to attack the frontline quicks, he also dominated the spinners and less-accomplished seamers with special ferocity.
Sri Lanka had been in control when Fakhar and Baig came together in the fourth over. Madushanka had struck twice with the new ball, having both Maaz Sadaqat and Babar Azam caught at slip. Baig, Fakhar’s partner through the massive recovery stand, was also strong square of the wicket, the pitch providing true bounce that the Sri Lanka batters had also trusted earlier in the day.
Fakhar took 52 balls to get to his fifty, perhaps because early wickets had fallen. But he climbed into a high gear soon after. He got to his 12th ODI hundred off the 84th ball he faced, and had struck 75 off his last 40 deliveries. Fakhar was dismissed in the 34th over by Madushanka, who, having dismissed each of the Pakistan top three, eventually finished with figures of 3 for 63 from 9.3 overs – the best figures in the game.
Pakistan still needed 106 runs at the point of Fakhar’s dismissal, but the pace at which he had scored those runs meant Pakistan’s required rate was less than 6.5 runs an over for the last 16.5 overs. In fact, Pakistan endured a nine-over stretch between overs 33 and 42 in which they did not found the boundary. And yet with batting to come, they were still ahead in the match.
Minhas’ innings was laudably pragmatic. He bided his time and came to grips with conditions in the first 14 balls he faced, hitting no boundaries. Then, after the 42nd over, and after the heavy dew had set in, he exploded. Minhas reaped 48 runs off the last 17 balls he faced, hitting four sixes and three fours all up. The most spectacular of his sixes was a check-driven hit over long-on off Madushanka in the 47th over.
At the start of the next over, Pakistan needed 18 off 18 balls. Minhas then struck two sixes and a four off Asitha Fernando to get Pakistan to within two runs of victory before top-edging a slower ball which Asitha himself chased down. With so many balls remaining, however, there was little doubt who would win by that stage.
Earlier, Sri Lanka scorched their way to 255 in 41 overs, propelled by Kamindu’s maiden ODI hundred and another sparkling innings from Rathnayake, who hit 77 from 65 balls. Both were brutal on errors of length on a true pitch, with Rathnayake showcasing a powerful sweep again, in addition to his ravishing pull. Kamindu, meanwhile, unleashed virtually the full array of his strokes on his first trip to triple figures in white-ball cricket.
He had been largely unhurried in the early overs, though there was an excellent reverse sweep off Minhas in the seventh over. But having been 18 off 29 balls at the end of the ninth over, he accelerated through the middle overs. That happened first in the company of Avishka Fernando, with whom Kamindu put on 87 off 104 deliveries at the top of the innings, before Rathnayake joined Kamindu in the 22nd over for their big stand.
But Pakistan’s quicks rallied in the last nine overs, and Sri Lanka’s middle order collapsed, as the tailenders had to play out the last 11 balls. After Afridi had got Kamindu lbw when the batter missed a sweep, and Dasun Shanaka was caught at long-on off Afridi in the 44th over, Sri Lanka’s final push was already struggling for momentum.
Then, next over, Rathnayake was caught on the straight boundary off Rauf. That was the first time in four innings that Rathnayake was out for less than 100. He finished as the top run-scorer in the series by a distance, with 427 runs in the tournament at a strike rate of 122.70.
Naseem and Rauf made further strikes to shackle Sri Lanka at the death, producing perhaps the most consequential passage of play in the match – Sri Lanka’s stilted finish.
Andrew Fidel Fernando is a senior writer at Cricinfo. @afidelf
