Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by 37 runs in the opening match of the ODI tri-series at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Sunday, as Salman Ali Agha’s 107 off 90 balls powered the hosts to 305 before Shaheen Shah Afridi’s 3 for 55 restricted the visitors to 268. The hundred took Agha past Mohammad Yousuf for the most ODI centuries by a Pakistani batter at No. 5 or lower, and he was named player of the match. Pakistan now face England in Rawalpindi on Tuesday, October 20.
How Pakistan set up the 37-run win
Pakistan’s innings swung wildly after Sri Lanka chose to bowl. Openers Saim Ayub and Fakhar Zaman fell for 7 and 16, and it was Babar Azam’s 45 and Saad Baig’s 39, in a 74-run third-wicket stand, that steadied the side. The middle overs belonged to Agha: a 97-run fifth-wicket partnership with Hasan Nawaz, who made 37, and a 64-run sixth-wicket stand with Arafat Minhas, who made 18, lifted Pakistan to 305. Eshan Malinga was Sri Lanka’s best bowler with 4 for 46, while Asitha Fernando took 3 for 59, including Agha’s wicket in the 47th over.
Sri Lanka’s chase followed a similar script. They slipped to 91 for 4, with Kamindu Mendis’s 44 the only early resistance, before Pavan Rathnayake’s 79 off 74 balls and Janith Liyanage’s 60 off 74 produced a superb 119-run fifth-wicket partnership that briefly threatened to turn the game. Faheem Ashraf broke the stand by dismissing Rathnayake, Haris Rauf removed Liyanage, and after Dasun Shanaka’s quick 28 off 18 balls, Sri Lanka lost their last five wickets for just 15 runs, bowled out for 268 in 48.1 overs. Shaheen led the bowling with 3 for 55, while Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf and Faheem Ashraf took two wickets each.
The win continued Pakistan’s strong recent white-ball form against the same opposition, following Pakistan’s 82-run T20 series win over Sri Lanka earlier this month.
The record, decoded: why the stats pages disagree
Agha’s hundred was his fourth in ODI cricket, and it moved him ahead of Mohammad Yousuf for the most ODI hundreds by a Pakistani batter at No. 5 or lower. Before Sunday, the two were level on three. Yousuf played 114 ODIs in that batting position between 1998 and 2009, scoring 3,092 runs at an average of 34.74, while Agha has 1,649 runs at 44.56 with a strike rate of 97.86. Abdul Razzaq and Shahid Afridi are next on the list with two centuries each.
Here is the part no scorecard explains. Some stats pages credit Agha with only three hundreds and Yousuf with two, and both are technically right. Those tables count only innings played at exactly No. 5: Agha’s fourth hundred, and Yousuf’s third, came one spot lower down the order. The record is measured at No. 5 or lower, which is why Agha now stands alone with four. For context, the world record for most ODI centuries at No. 5 belongs to India’s Yuvraj Singh, with seven tons in 99 innings.
From the wilderness back to the middle order
The hundred carried extra weight because of where Agha has been. He had not played for Pakistan since August, after losing his place in the T20I and Test sides as well as the T20I captaincy. Instead of fading, he went back to domestic cricket, turning out for Kingsmen in the President’s Trophy Grade-I competition, where an unbeaten triple century in mid-September and another hundred later in the month, across five matches, forced the selectors to look again.
After the match, Agha made a pointed case for the domestic game. “I feel that we don’t give enough respect to our domestic cricket,” he said, arguing that runs made outside the international arena should not be dismissed when established players return there to rebuild form. Sunday’s innings was his answer.
What comes next: England on Tuesday
Pakistan meet England in the second match of the tri-series at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Tuesday, October 20, before England and Sri Lanka face each other at the same venue on October 22. The action then moves to Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium for the remaining league games on October 25, 27 and 29, with each team playing the other twice and the top two sides contesting the final on October 31. The series is also Pakistan’s most important 50-over test since Pakistan’s ICC Champions Trophy 2025 campaign, with next year’s 50-over World Cup in southern Africa firmly in mind. Follow more Pakistan sports news and cricket analysis as the series unfolds.
