Pakistan captain Salman Agha struck a record-breaking fourth ODI century as the hosts posted 305 all out against Sri Lanka in the opening match of the ODI tri-series at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Sunday, in a tournament that also features England.
Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to bowl first under lights. Pakistan’s top order struggled early, with Dilshan Madushanka removing both openers — Saim Ayub for 7 and Fakhar Zaman for 16 — inside the first few overs. Babar Azam (45) and debutant wicketkeeper Saad Baig (39 off 40 balls, with two sixes and three fours) then steadied the innings before both fell in the same spell to pacer Eshan Malinga, who finished with a career-best 4 for 46.
That brought Agha to the crease, and the captain anchored the rest of the innings. He added a 97-run stand for the fifth wicket with Hasan Nawaz (37) and a further 64-run partnership for the sixth wicket with Arafat Minhas (18), reaching his century off 82 balls before eventually falling for 107 off 90 deliveries, with ten fours and a six, to Asitha Fernando in the 47th over. The knock was Agha’s fourth ODI hundred batting at number five or lower, one more than Mohammad Yousuf’s previous Pakistan record of three centuries from that position, according to Yahoo Sports.
Pakistan looked set for an even bigger total — they were 279 for 6 at one stage — before losing their last five wickets for just 26 runs to be bowled out in 49.5 overs. Shadab Khan and Sufiyan Moqim sat out the match due to illness, the Pakistan Cricket Board said, as reported by Samaa TV.
| Batter | Runs | Balls | Dismissal |
|---|---|---|---|
| Saim Ayub | 7 | – | b Madushanka |
| Fakhar Zaman | 16 | – | b Madushanka |
| Babar Azam | 45 | – | b Malinga |
| Saad Baig (debut) | 39 | 40 | b Malinga |
| Salman Agha (c) | 107 | 90 | b Fernando |
| Hasan Nawaz | 37 | – | – |
| Arafat Minhas | 18 | – | – |
| Total | 305 all out, 49.5 overs | ||
Among the Sri Lankan bowlers, Malinga (4/46) and Fernando (3/59) did the bulk of the damage after Madushanka’s early breakthroughs. Chasing a target of 306, Sri Lanka’s reply was under way at the time of writing, with the tourists needing to bat through the Rawalpindi lights to keep the tri-series opener alive.
Pakistan had beaten Sri Lanka 2-0 in a T20I series last week, and had been widely expected to carry that form into the 50-over tri-series opener, which also serves as an early audition for places in Pakistan’s squad ahead of next year’s ODI World Cup.
Our Opinion
Salman Agha’s innings is the kind of captain’s knock Pakistan cricket has gone looking for all year — composed under pressure, built through sensible partnerships rather than one big hitting spree, and arriving at a time when his own place in the side had been questioned after a difficult England tour; but the middle-order collapse that followed, five wickets down for just 26 runs after a platform of 279 for 6, is the more familiar and more worrying pattern, and until Pakistan’s batting can turn a strong position into a genuinely big total rather than a merely good one, the gains from days like this will keep being partially undone by the team’s own habit of losing shape in the last ten overs.
