Sri Lanka pulled off one of the great ODI run-chases, hunting down a mammoth 430 against England at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Thursday to win with just one ball to spare — and in doing so, overshadowed a record-breaking double century from England captain Harry Brook. The result, in the third match of the Pakistan ODI Tri-Series 2026, keeps Pakistan alone at the top of the points table heading into the tournament’s final leg in Lahore.
Put in to bat after Sri Lanka captain Kusal Mendis won the toss, England posted 429 for 4 in their 50 overs — at the time the highest ODI team total ever recorded in Pakistan, eclipsing Pakistan’s own 375 for 3 against Zimbabwe in 2015, according to Geo News. The innings was built almost entirely around Brook, who smashed 202 off just 116 balls with 21 fours and 10 sixes — the highest individual score ever made in a men’s ODI on Pakistani soil, surpassing Gary Kirsten’s 188 for South Africa against the UAE in Rawalpindi back in 1996. Geo News and The Express Tribune both reported that Brook raced to his double century inside roughly 114-116 balls, among the fastest in the format’s history, though the exact ball count varied slightly between reports.
Brook was not alone. Joe Root made a brisk 69 off 66 balls, Tom Banton struck 51, and Ben Duckett opened with 29 before Will Jacks finished unbeaten on 60 off just 33 balls. Two big stands did the damage: Brook and Root put on 159 for the third wicket, and Brook and Jacks added a further 185 off only 77 balls for the fourth, turning a solid total into a near-impossible target. For Sri Lanka, left-arm spinner Dunith Wellalage was the most economical and successful bowler with figures of 2 for 56 from his 10 overs, while Asitha Fernando and Janith Liyanage picked up one wicket apiece — Liyanage removing Brook with the very last ball of the England innings.
Sri Lanka’s Record Chase
What followed was arguably the bigger story. Sri Lanka lost both Kusal Mendis, out for a duck inside the first five overs, and Kamindu Mendis cheaply, leaving the chase in serious trouble early. From there, Pavan Rathnayake and Asitha Fernando rebuilt with a 166-run third-wicket stand off 137 balls, before Rathnayake and Dasun Shanaka added another 133 for the fourth wicket to keep Sri Lanka ahead of the asking rate.
Rathnayake anchored the chase with 130 off 106 balls, including 15 fours and 3 sixes, for his second ODI century, before falling to Sam Curran in the 41st over. Fernando contributed a career-best 97 off 83 balls before holing out to Jamie Overton off his own bowling, and Shanaka blazed 97 off just 50 deliveries — six fours and eight sixes — narrowly missing out on what would have been his maiden ODI hundred. With the equation still tight in the closing overs, Janith Liyanage finished the job with an unbeaten 61 off 27 balls, guiding Sri Lanka over the line in 49.5 overs. Geo News and the Tribune both described the successful chase of 430 as the second-highest in men’s ODI history, though neither named which team holds the outright record. For England, Josh Tongue was the pick of the bowlers with 3 for 79, while Curran, Overton and Liam Dawson shared the remaining wickets.
| Team | Score | Overs | Top Scorers |
|---|---|---|---|
| England | 429/4 | 50.0 | Brook 202 (116b), Root 69, Jacks 60*, Banton 51, Duckett 29 |
| Sri Lanka (won) | 430 | 49.5 | Rathnayake 130, Fernando 97, Shanaka 97, Liyanage 61* |
Pakistan, who are not involved in this fixture, remain the only unbeaten side in the competition. They beat Sri Lanka in the tri-series opener on October 18 behind a Salman Agha century — a result PakDaily covered in detail — and followed it up with a win over England on October 20. Thursday’s result means Sri Lanka have now won one of their two matches and England are still searching for their first victory of the competition, with two matches left before the final.
| Team | Played | Won | Lost | NRR | Points |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pakistan | 2 | 2 | 0 | +1.24 | 4 |
| Sri Lanka | 2 | 1 | 1 | -0.35 | 2 |
| England | 2 | 0 | 2 | -0.89 | 0 |
The tri-series now shifts to Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore for its final three round-robin fixtures — Pakistan vs England on October 25, Pakistan vs Sri Lanka on October 27, and Sri Lanka vs England on October 29 — before the top two sides meet in the final on October 31. With Rathnayake (209 runs) and Brook (207 runs) currently the tournament’s leading run-scorers, the batting records set in Rawalpindi may not be the last of this series.
Our Opinion
Thursday’s match was a reminder that in modern one-day cricket, even a record-shattering individual innings and the highest team total on Pakistani soil are no longer a guarantee of victory; the depth of modern batting line-ups, as Sri Lanka’s middle order showed with three scores of fifty or more in reply, means 430 is now a target teams can realistically chase rather than a total that settles the game at the toss. For Pakistan, sitting unbeaten at the top of the table while its rivals take points off each other, the bigger test will come once the series moves to Lahore and they face opponents who have already shown they can bat big under pressure.
