Reporting snapshot · 28 October 2026 (Asia/Karachi). The fifth match of the one-day international tri-series is finished and both finalists are known, but the points table and net run rate that separate first from second place have not been published, and England still have a group game to play against Sri Lanka on 29 October. The main limitation is that no official scorecard was available to check, so the figures come from the published accounts of the match.
What happened at the Gaddafi Stadium
Sri Lanka beat Pakistan by eight wickets in the fifth match of the one-day international tri-series at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore on Tuesday, 27 October, and will now play Pakistan in the final on 31 October at the same ground. The Express Tribune reported that left-arm pacer Dilshan Madushanka took five wickets for 34 runs as Pakistan were bowled out for 110, and Geo News reported that Sri Lanka then reached the target in the 19th over, losing only two wickets, to win with more than thirty overs to spare.
Radio Pakistan reported the same result in the state broadcaster’s bulletin, giving the figures as 110 all out in 25.3 overs for Pakistan and a chase completed in 18.1 overs for the loss of two wickets. The accounts agree on the margin, on Pakistan’s total and on a two-wicket chase; the only difference is whether the chase is described as finished in the 19th over or as 18.1 overs, which are the same point in the innings.
England are out of the final. The Express Tribune reported that the outcome put England out of the event, while adding that England still face Sri Lanka in their last group game at the same venue on Thursday.
How Pakistan were bowled out
Pakistan were put in to bat and never took control of the innings. Fakhar Zaman was caught at gully by Pavan Rathnayake off Madushanka for five from 13 balls, The Express Tribune reported, and Maaz Sadaqat was bowled leg before by Asitha Fernando for eight. Saad Baig fell to Madushanka for five, and Salman Ali Agha was caught behind off Arachchige Hasan Nawaz for nine.
Babar Azam was the only Pakistani batter to pass 20, making 29 from 33 balls with five fours before he was bowled by Eshan Malinga in the 14th over. His dismissal triggered a further collapse, with Pakistan losing their last six wickets for 49 runs after reaching 61 for 4, The Express Tribune reported. Hasan Nawaz managed 17 from 31 deliveries and Shadab Khan two before being caught by Kusal Mendis off Arachchige.
Madushanka’s spell was the reason the total was so low. His five wickets for 34 runs took half of Pakistan’s ten dismissals, and Geo News said he “ripped through the hosts’ batting” as the innings folded after 61 for 4. Pakistan’s captain Shaheen Afridi took one wicket for 29 runs and the left-arm spinner Arafat Minhas one for 23, and neither of them was among the three Sri Lankan batters who reached double figures.
What Sri Lanka’s chase showed
Sri Lanka were given 111 to win, and they reached it in 18.1 overs without ever putting pressure on themselves. Opener Avishka Fernando and Kamindu Mendis brought up a 50-run stand in the seventh over, the pair adopting an aggressive approach from the start, Geo News reported. Shaheen Afridi ended that stand by removing Fernando for 16 from 17 deliveries, including two fours.
Arafat Minhas then removed Sri Lanka’s captain Kusal Mendis for eight from six balls, the batter being bowled after the ball deflected off his own bat into the stumps, Geo News reported. Kamindu Mendis then rebuilt with Pavan Rathnayake, passing 100 in the 17th over and adding an unbroken third-wicket stand of 52, and finished unbeaten on 62 from 60 balls with eight fours and two sixes. The Express Tribune noted that the left-hander completed his fifth ODI fifty, and that he reached it from 42 balls. Pavan Rathnayake, who had struck a century against England in the previous game, made an unbeaten 23 from 26 balls, The Express Tribune reported.
What the result means for the final
The immediate significance is the size of the collapse rather than the margin of the win. Pakistan’s 110 was less than half the 302 for 9 they made against England at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium eight days earlier, as KhabarWire reported, and only two of their ten batters reached double figures.
The batting order has also been unsettled. Days before this match the Pakistan Cricket Board released opener Saim Ayub at his own request to return to domestic cricket, named Sahibzada Farhan as his replacement and added Maaz Sadaqat to the squad, as KhabarWire reported. Sadaqat opened on Tuesday in place of Ayub and was dismissed for eight. Shaheen Afridi had already raised the inconsistent returns of the top order before the previous game, and no announcement has been made about changes for the final.
The wider frame is the 2027 World Cup. The tri-series is the most prominent 50-over cricket Pakistan has staged since the 2025 Champions Trophy, and the International Cricket Council put Pakistan and India in the same group at the 2027 men’s World Cup on 1 October, as KhabarWire reported when the tournament opened. A final at the Gaddafi Stadium on 31 October, and a squad search that has run through most of the series, will be read in that light. The series is tracked in KhabarWire’s Pakistan Cricket hub.
What is still uncertain
The standings are the largest gap. Neither account published a points table or a net run rate, so how the two qualifying sides are separated, and how England’s last group game on Thursday could affect that separation, is not set out in the published record.
Pakistan’s eleven for the final is also undecided. No selection announcement has been made, and whether the board changes the top order or the captaincy after a total of 110 is not something either account addresses.
On the date, both accounts put the final on 31 October, though Geo News’s standfirst named a different weekday, and no start time has been published. Finally, the published accounts give no comparison of Pakistan’s 110 with the totals they made in the other group games, so how the collapse ranks against the rest of the series is not established here.
