Pakistan Crush Lanka in Third ODI at Rawalpindi – By Michael Roberts
Review in The ISLAND, 30 November 2025, entitled “Nawaz and Afridi blow Sri Lanka away to seal tri-series for Pakistan”
Pakistan thundered to victory in the final of the tri-series, their attack blazing through the last nine Sri Lanka wickets for 30 runs, before their batters carried them without major drama to a target of 115. The victory came in the 19th over.
Earlier, it had been three-wicket hauls for Shaheen Sha Afridi and Mohammed Nawaz, and two wickets for Abrar Ahmed, that had seen Pakistan produce the definitive passage of the game – the second half of Sri Lanka’s innings.
How do you go from a 64-run second-wicket partnership to 114 all out? Let Sri Lanka show you how.
The spinners drove the collapse. After Nawaz dismissed Mendis, Abrar and Ayub ran riot, Abrar having Kusal Perera and Pavan Rathnayake caught attempting big shots within three balls of each other. Ayub had Sri Lanka’s top-scorer Kamil Mishara caught, before Nawaz came back to rattle the stumps of Janith Liyanage and Wanindu Hasaranga.
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To give you an idea of how quickly wickets were falling, Sri Lanka had seven consecutive partnerships worth six runs or fewer.
A score of 37 not out off 34 isn’t exactly stellar T20I material, but in the context of having to guide the team to a low target, Babar’s innings was sensibly-paced. It may not deter his critics exactly, but it might hold them off.
In a stretch in which Babar has been suggesting that the best version of himself might be back, it was also significant that he had such a good outing in the field in this match. The catch to dismiss Mendis was a nicely-judged overhead take, balancing to keep himself inside the boundary. The catch to dismiss Mishara was taken on the run, coming in from the straight boundary, diving forward. To get Rathnayake, he leapt up inside the circle to hold the catch with outstretched fingers.
Although Sri Lanka would fail spectacularly to build on it, their young opener Mishara had set a launching pad with his 59 off 47 balls. He had a powerful aerial game inside the powerplay, his three sixes in that phase coming in the arc between long off and deep midwicket. After the field went back, he settled into a rhythm of singles. With this being his second successive half-century, Sri Lanka are likely to persist with him.
Brief scores:
Pakistan 118 for 4 in 18.4 overs (Shaibzada Farhan 23, Saim Ayub 36, Babar Azam 37*, Salman Agha 14; Eshan Malinga 1-16, Wanidu Hasaranga 1-31, Pavan Rathnayake 2-11) beat Sri Lanka 114 in 19.1 overs (Pathum Nissanka 11, Kamil Mishara 59, Kusal Mendis 14: Mohammed Nawaz 3-17, Shaheen Shah Afridi 3-18,Salman Mirza 1-25, Abrar Ahmed 2-18, Saim Ayub 1-17) by six wickets
[Cricinfo]
THUPPAHI’s Thoughts
A: Apart from home advantage Pakistan had tha t of the kerfuffle within the SL tourteam about political security and the displaacement of thecaptain Asalanka.
B: This advantage waas compouned by Pakistan winning the toss and sending SL in to bat.
C: I could not watch the match live but was following the ESPN reportage by script from Adelaide. It Seemed to me that Pakistan batsmen always had the edge; but the Sri Lankans did fight to the end — with Babar Azam showing the strenth of skill & character to take Pakistan home.
D. Kamil Mishara stepped up asa promising new prospect for Sri Lanka; while Chameera confirmed his qualities as an economical bowler who also takes wkts..
