Pakistan Bowled Out for 110 as Sri Lanka Storm Into Tri-Series Final

By TaazaPulse Newsroom · 29 October 2026 · Cricket desk report from TaazaPulse

Pakistan were bowled out for 110 in 25.3 overs and beaten by eight wickets at Gaddafi Stadium on Tuesday, as Sri Lanka chased 114 for 2 in 18.1 overs in the fifth match of the ODI tri-series. The win put Sri Lanka into Saturday's final against Pakistan at the same venue and eliminated England, on a day when Pakistan recorded their second-lowest ODI total on home soil.

There are defeats that turn on a single moment, and defeats visible from almost the first half-hour. This was the second kind. Sri Lanka captain Kusal Mendis won the toss and chose to bowl, and Pakistan slipped to 11 for 1, then 23 for 2, then 46 for 3, never recovering a rhythm, a partnership or a plan that survived the next wicket. By the time they were 61 for 5 after 13.1 overs, the only questions left were how far past 100 the lower order could drag them, and how quickly Sri Lanka would finish the chase.

The answers came swiftly. Pakistan lasted 25.3 overs. Sri Lanka needed only 18.1 overs to reply, winning with 191 balls to spare — a margin that underlines the gap between the sides far more honestly than the eight-wicket figure alone. Kamindu Mendis finished unbeaten on 62 off 60 balls, and the final, on Saturday 31 October at the same ground, will be a repeat of this fixture — with, Pakistan will hope, a rather different batting performance.

A collapse that started early and never stopped

Pakistan's innings can be read most clearly through its fall of wickets, because that sequence tells the whole story. Fakhar Zaman was first to go, for 5, with the score on 11 in the fourth over, dismissed by Dilshan Madushanka. Maaz Sadaqat followed for 8, at 23 for 2, to Asitha Fernando. Saad Baig made 5 before Madushanka struck again at 46 for 3. None of the first three partnerships gave Pakistan a platform, and none of the departing batters had scored quickly enough to offset the loss. This was not a side undone while attacking; it was a side losing wickets while the scoreboard barely moved.

The middle brought no correction. Salman Ali Agha fell for 9 at 61, to Sahan Arachchige, and at the same total Babar Azam's dismissal left Pakistan five down. Shadab Khan went three runs later, for 2, also to Arachchige, and at 64 for 6 any notion of reconstruction had evaporated. Pakistan had lost their fourth, fifth and sixth wickets for three runs. Any side struggles to rebuild from that position, and Pakistan did not come close.

What followed was fragmented resistance rather than a recovery. Arafat Minhas made 10 and Hasan Nawaz 17, and their wickets fell at the same score, 91 — Minhas to Madushanka and Hasan Nawaz to Dunith Wellalage — leaving Pakistan 91 for 8. Haris Rauf added a single before Madushanka removed him at 92 for 9. Only the last-wicket partnership, worth 18 runs, carried Pakistan from 92 to 110 and into three figures. Extras offered little help either: six leg-byes and one wide.

Madushanka's career-best spell

If one performance defined the match, it was Dilshan Madushanka's. He finished with 5 for 34 in 8.3 overs, his career-best figures in one-day internationals, and his wickets were spread across the innings in a way that prevented Pakistan from ever settling. He took the first wicket, Fakhar Zaman, and the third, Saad Baig, breaking the top order open before it had formed. He returned to remove Arafat Minhas, Haris Rauf and finally Shaheen Shah Afridi, the last wicket to fall, which closed the innings at 110 and completed his five-wicket haul.

Support from all around him

Madushanka did not work alone. Sahan Arachchige took 2 for 24, and his two wickets — Salman Ali Agha and Shadab Khan — arrived at the most damaging moment, around the collapse from 61 to 64. Eshan Malinga claimed the most prized wicket of the day, Babar Azam, while Asitha Fernando accounted for Maaz Sadaqat early and Dunith Wellalage removed Hasan Nawaz when Pakistan were trying, belatedly, to add to the total. Every Sri Lanka bowler used took a wicket — there was no weak spell for Pakistan to target.

Babar's brief resistance, and the tail's

Babar Azam top-scored for Pakistan with 29 off 33 balls, with five fours, before he was trapped lbw by Eshan Malinga. In a normal innings those numbers would describe a start, not a top score. Here they were both the highest individual contribution and a measure of the failure around him: the next highest scores were Hasan Nawaz's 17 and Shaheen Shah Afridi's 15. Babar was the fifth wicket to fall, at 61, and when he left, no remaining batter passed him.

Shaheen's 15, including two sixes, at least took Pakistan past 100, a threshold that had looked uncertain at 92 for 9. The last-wicket partnership of 18 runs, with Naseem Shah remaining not out, was an exercise in survival in an innings where no partnership grew into anything substantial. When Shaheen fell to Madushanka, Pakistan were all out for 110, with almost half their overs unused.

That unused allocation matters. Pakistan were not bowled out sacrificing wickets at the death; they were bowled out in 25.3 overs batting first. The overs left unused represent the consolidation that never happened. Shadab Khan, who only recently in this series scored his maiden ODI century against England, made 2 here — a reminder of how little a previous innings protects a side in the next one.

Kamindu Mendis finishes the job

Sri Lanka's chase was, by contrast, an exercise in calm arithmetic. They reached 114 for 2 in 18.1 overs, and the reply was shaped by Kamindu Mendis, who made 62 not out off 60 balls with eight fours and two sixes. His was the only half-century of the match, in a game where Pakistan's best was 29, and he was still there at the finish alongside Pavan Rathnayake, who ended unbeaten on 23. Avishka Fernando contributed 16 and Kusal Mendis 8, and those were the only wickets Pakistan took.

Pakistan's bowlers given too little to defend

It would be harsh to judge Pakistan's bowlers for failing to defend 110. Shaheen Shah Afridi took 1 for 29 in six overs and Arafat Minhas 1 for 23 in five overs, and that was the extent of their success. Sri Lanka were never required to take an unchosen risk: a low target means the fielding side needs wickets in clusters, the batting side needs only one settled partnership, and Kamindu Mendis provided exactly that.

The defeat also ended Pakistan's five-match winning streak against Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka will arrive on Saturday having just dismantled the side they must beat again. Pakistan had already qualified for the final before this match — a fact that explains their presence there, but does nothing to soften what happened here.

Scorecard summary

What it means: a final, and questions that will not wait

The tournament consequences are straightforward. Pakistan had already qualified for the final before a ball was bowled in this match, the one mitigating fact in an otherwise bleak day for them. Sri Lanka's win put them into the final alongside Pakistan and eliminated England. England's elimination also closes a strange week for them: only last week, Sri Lanka chased down 430 against England in Rawalpindi, the second-highest successful run chase in ODI history.

For Pakistan, the questions before Saturday are almost entirely about batting. A total of 110, reported as their second-lowest ODI total on home soil, cannot be explained by one dismissal or one spell alone, even one as good as Madushanka's 5 for 34. A top order lost three wickets for 46, the middle order lost three wickets for three runs around 61, and the lower order added spirit without enough runs. The same side, or a changed one, must produce an answer at the same venue, against the same attack, in four days.

This series has already seen Gaddafi Stadium host its 150th men's international match, a milestone reported during the tournament, and the same ground will now host the final. Saturday's narrative is clear: can Pakistan turn a rout into a contest when the trophy is attached, or was Tuesday an accurate measure of the two sides?

Sri Lanka, for their part, have no such questions. They won the toss, bowled with discipline across five different wicket-takers, watched their leading bowler record career-best figures, and chased a small target behind an unbeaten half-century from Kamindu Mendis without ever looking hurried. If they reproduce anything close to this completeness on Saturday, they will be difficult to beat. Pakistan's task is simpler to state than to perform: first, make sure the final lasts longer, and means more, than the 43.4 overs of cricket that settled this match and sent England home.