Pakistan Chase First Home Tri-Series Title in Lahore Final

 

Pakistan walk out at Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore today with a piece of history in front of them that has stayed out of reach for more than three decades. The ODI tri-series final against Sri Lanka starts at 1:00pm PKT, with the toss at 12:30pm PKT, and the prize is something Pakistan have never won: a tri-series title on home soil.

This is the fourth ODI tri-series staged in Pakistan, and the first three all ended in final heartbreak for the hosts. Australia beat Pakistan in the 1994 final, Sri Lanka won in 2004, and New Zealand took the title last year. Today, against the same opponents who ruined their last league game, Pakistan get another chance to change that story — and head coach Mike Hesson believes his side have not even played their best cricket yet.

"To get three wins in a row was a good sign but I still don't think we have played our best game yet," Hesson said ahead of the final. "Hopefully we are saving that for the final."

A title Pakistan have never won at home

That history is what makes today bigger than an ordinary final. Pakistan have won tri-series tournaments abroad, but at home the trophy has always slipped away at the last step. The 1994 runners-up finish to Australia, the 2004 defeat to Sri Lanka and last year's loss to New Zealand mean this generation of players grew up watching Pakistan fall short in exactly this kind of game.

Captain Shaheen Shah Afridi, speaking to PCB Digital before the final, struck a similar note to his coach: the team has performed well, but there is still work to do. "We have performed well as a team, but there are still areas where we need to improve, particularly scoring runs at the top and building partnerships," Shaheen said. "The crowd has always supported us and we hope fans will turn out in large numbers tomorrow to witness an exciting contest."

Sri Lanka, meanwhile, arrive with no fear of the occasion. Captain Kusal Mendis was bullish before the weekend, saying his side are "quite confident going into the final", while also refusing to take Pakistan lightly. "Pakistan are a very good side, and playing them in their own conditions makes them a challenging opponent and we can never underestimate them," Mendis said.

How both teams reached the final

Pakistan finished top of the league table with six points from four matches, winning three and losing one. Sri Lanka finished second with four points, winning two and losing two, while England finished third with two points and were eliminated despite beating Sri Lanka in the last league game.

Team	Played	Won	Lost	Points
Pakistan	4	3	1	6
Sri Lanka	4	2	2	4
England	4	1	3	2

Pakistan's road to the final began in Rawalpindi, where they beat Sri Lanka by 37 runs in the series opener thanks to a century from Salman Ali Agha. They then beat England by 87 runs, with young all-rounder Arafat Minhas taking six wickets, before producing the escape of the tournament in Lahore: chasing 241 against England from 154 for 9, Shadab Khan's unbeaten 113 off 96 balls, in an 89-run last-wicket stand with Haris Rauf, carried Pakistan to a one-wicket win.

Sri Lanka's road was wilder. They produced one of the great ODI chases in history, hunting down England's 429 for 4 to win by two wickets with 430 for 8 — the second-highest successful chase in ODI history. Then, four days before the final, they dismantled Pakistan at this same ground. And in their last league game they pushed England again, chasing 387 before falling 55 runs short as England posted 386 for 5 and bowled them out for 331.

The 110 lesson Pakistan must not repeat

Everything about today's final runs through one match: Pakistan's 110 all out against Sri Lanka in Lahore on October 27. Babar Azam top-scored with 29 as left-arm fast bowler Dilshan Madushanka took 5 for 34, Sahan Arachchige took 2 for 24, and Sri Lanka chased 114 for 2 in just 18.1 overs, with Kamindu Mendis unbeaten on 62.

That collapse is the reason Hesson's "best game yet" line matters so much. Pakistan's top order has been the weak link of an otherwise successful campaign. Opener Fakhar Zaman has scored only 31 runs in four matches in the series, and Babar Azam has 118 runs in four matches — respectable, but well below what Pakistan need from their star batter in a final. Salman Ali Agha, with 158 runs in four matches including that opening century, is Pakistan's leading run-scorer in the tournament, which tells its own story about where the runs have — and have not — come from.

The fix is not complicated, but it is demanding: survive the new ball, build partnerships, and give the middle order something to work with. Shaheen said it himself — scoring runs at the top and building partnerships are the two areas that must improve. If Pakistan lose three wickets in the powerplay again, Sri Lanka's bowlers will smell the same opportunity they seized on October 27.

Three battles that will decide the final

1. Pakistan's top order vs Dilshan Madushanka. Madushanka has eight wickets in four matches in the series, level with Shaheen as one of the tournament's leading wicket-takers, and his 5 for 34 four days ago was the spell that broke Pakistan. Fakhar Zaman and Maaz Sadaqat, or whoever opens, must get through his opening burst without damage. The first ten overs are the whole final in miniature.

2. Pavan Rathnayake vs Pakistan's bowlers. Rathnayake has been Sri Lanka's form batter of the series, scoring two centuries against England, including 118 off 77 balls in the last league game. He also made runs against Pakistan in the series. Arafat Minhas, Pakistan's leading wicket-taker with nine wickets in four matches, and the pace trio of Shaheen, Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf must find a way to stop him before he sets the tempo, as he did against England.

3. The middle overs: Agha and Shadab vs Sri Lanka's spin. If the top order holds, the game moves to Agha, Shadab and Hasan Nawaz against Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana and the part-time options. Sri Lanka's spinners kept Pakistan quiet in the 110 game, and the middle overs are where finals are usually won — by turning 180 for 3 into 280, rather than 180 for 6 into 220 all out.

Pitch, weather and how to watch

Gaddafi Stadium has been a batting paradise through this series — England's 386 for 5 and Sri Lanka's 430 chase both came at this ground — and the surface is expected to offer good bounce and carry for stroke-makers, with spinners coming into the game in the middle overs. Two of the three series matches already played in Lahore were won by the chasing side, which may tempt the toss-winning captain to bowl first. But no total has felt safe here, and the captain who bats first and posts a big score will still fancy his chances under lights.

The weather should not interfere. Lahore is forecast to be sunny on match day, with temperatures between 19 and 32 degrees Celsius and only a small chance of rain, so a full 100-over contest is expected.

Fans in Pakistan can watch the final live on PTV Sports and stream it on Tapmad, Tamasha and PCB Live. The match starts at 1:00pm PKT, with the toss at 12:30pm PKT, which is 1:30pm IST for viewers in India.

Probable playing XIs

The confirmed playing XIs will only be known at the toss, but the widely tipped line-ups for the final are:

Pakistan: Fakhar Zaman, Maaz Sadaqat, Babar Azam, Saad Baig (wk), Salman Ali Agha, Hasan Nawaz, Arafat Minhas, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Shah Afridi (c), Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf.

Sri Lanka: Kamindu Mendis, Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis (c and wk), Pavan Rathnayake, Sahan Arachchige, Janith Liyanage, Dasun Shanaka, Dunith Wellalage, Eshan Malinga, Dilshan Madushanka, Asitha Fernando.

The overall ODI head-to-head still favours Pakistan heavily — 97 wins to Sri Lanka's 60 across 162 ODIs, according to CricTracker — but recent form in this series points the other way. Pakistan won the first meeting by 37 runs; Sri Lanka won the second by eight wickets. The final is the decider, and it is being played on the ground where Sri Lanka delivered their most complete performance of the tournament.

What a win would mean

For Pakistan, a win today would end a 32-year wait for a home tri-series title and give this team a trophy to show for a campaign that has mixed brilliance — the Shadab escape, the Minhas six-wicket haul, Agha's opening century — with one alarming collapse. It would also be a timely statement ahead of next year's ODI World Cup, co-hosted by South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia, for which this tri-series is seen as early preparation.

For Sri Lanka, a win would complete a remarkable turnaround: from a side that lost the opener to Pakistan, to the team that chased 430 against England, bowled Pakistan out for 110, and then walked into a final in Lahore believing they can win it. Mendis said his side took "valuable lessons" from their defeat to England. Pakistan will hope they took the wrong ones.

The verdict is simple. If Pakistan's top order stands up for the first time in this series, their bowling attack — Minhas, Shaheen, Naseem and Rauf — is good enough to defend or chase anything. If it folds again, Sri Lanka have already shown, four days ago at this very ground, exactly what happens next. That is why today is not just a final. It is a test of whether Pakistan have learned the harshest lesson of their own tournament.

Images: Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore — Wikimedia Commons (Gaddafi Stadium during PSL 2026, CC0; Gaddafi Stadium at Night panorama by Younis Junejo, CC BY-SA 4.0). Illustrative venue photos, not match photos. Sources: AFP via CricketNMore, CricketWorld, CricTracker, CricFacts, Latestly, PCB Digital quotes via CricketWorld.