PAK VS SL - 1st ODI, Sri Lanka tour of Pakistan 2025

This game had everything you expect from a thrilling ODI. Swing. Seam. A stunner. Century. Dew factor. Dropped catches. Partnerships. And a relatively close finish. Looks like this series is going to be a closely-fought one. Sri Lanka will aim to return strong on Thursday in the second ODI. Can Pakistan stop them and seal the series? Join us for that contest to find out. Cheers!!

Shaheen Afridi | Pakistan skipper: Credit goes to Salman Agha and Hussain Talat for the way they batted and getting us 300 on the board. The percentage of dot balls in the first 10 overs with the bat were very high. We were looking for 250-260 with the kind of start we got, credit goes to Haris Rauf for the way he bowled today. Really enjoyed that spell. Haris has been the wicket-taker for us in white-ball cricket for a long time now. That was an awesome catch (from Babar Azam).

Charith Asalanka | Sri Lanka skipper: The start was phenomenal. I still feel we could have restricted them to around 260-270. We lost wickets in that middle period including me and we made a few bad decisions. We all know that he is a superstar (Hasaranga) with the ball, and today he played to his full potential with the bat. Hope he continues this form.

Salman Agha | Player of the Match: Just wanted to be in the present and play one ball at a time and the partnership with Hussain Talat set the tone for us. We wanted to take it deep, because it was not easy with the new ball and we ran really well together and that was the highlight of the partnership. After 35 overs, both of us were set and we knew last 10 overs we have finishers in our line-up and we were confident of scoring 100 in the last 10 overs, which is why we wanted to take it deep.

Stats by Shashikant Singh

Haris Rauf's lengths today
Full: 0/8 (11 balls)
Good: 3/29 (30 balls)
Short: 1/19 (20 balls)

- First defeat for Sri Lanka after three consecutive wins and only the fourth loss in 11 ODI matches this year.

- 6 runs is the joint-lowest win margin for Pakistan against Sri Lanka in ODIs, with their win in Lucknow in 1989.

23:25 local, 18:25 GMT, 23:55 IST: Sri Lanka dominated the run-rate worm for almost 95 percent of the run-chase, but losing wickets in clusters came back to haunt them. Hasaranga tried his best with a valiant fifty, but unfortunately for him - there was no support from the other end. A solid start for the visitors in the powerplay, but the triple strike from Haris Rauf (Kamil Mishara, Kusal Mendis and Nissanka out in the space of 10 balls) helped Pakistan find momentum and put pressure on the rest of the batters. A couple of decent partnerships followed, but once again Sri Lanka lost 3 wickets - this time in the space of 7 overs - and that perhaps was the telling blow. Pakistan had that one mega partnership between Salman Agha and Hussain Talat, but the fact that Salman Agha converted his knock into a triple-figure milestone proved to be the difference in the end. 5 of the top 6 batters got starts for Sri Lanka, and all of them failed to kick on and take it deep, leaving the lower order too much to do at the end. Stick around for post-match reactions...

Hussain Talat to Theekshana, 2 runs, biffs the full ball past the bowler and long-off tidies up to keep it down to a couple. Pakistan win by 6 runs and go 1-0 up in the series.

Hussain Talat to Theekshana, no run, Theekshana trips over. He tries to play the cheeky scoop, but there's no pace on offer. He ends up inside-edging it onto his pads. Was that shot required?

Shaheen has a word with Hussain Talat. Wipes the ball before handing it over to him. 9 needed off 2

Hussain Talat to Theekshana, FOUR, back-to-back boundaries. Are we in for a superover? Theekshana swings like a wood-chopper and the thick outside edge flies over short third for yet another boundary

13 off 3

Hussain Talat to Theekshana, FOUR, much-needed boundary. Short and sits up on the stumps, Theekshana powers the pull on the leg-side and beats the diving fielder at wide long-on to his right

17 off 4

Hussain Talat to Theekshana, wide, once again Hussain Talat loses plot and sprays it miles outside off, Theekshana shapes up for a slog and only connects with thin air

18 off 4 now

Hussain Talat to Theekshana, wide, slower delivery bowled full and well wide of off stump, Theekshana looks to drill it down the ground and misses it

19 needed off 4