Fakhar's century seals it, but Pakistan's win was never a one-man show

Pakistan chased down a 326-run target against Sri Lanka with three wickets in hand in this tri-series encounter, but the scorecard's brightest name tells only part of the story. Fakhar Zaman's 127 — a 52-ball fifty and an 84-ball hundred — has been framed as the headline, yet the actual win was spread across several contributions: a 19-year-old's maiden international fifty, a 94-run middle-order stand, and a fast bowler's winning six. This was a tri-series fixture in which England were the third side, and the win mattered all the more because Pakistan had been bowled out for 110 just four days earlier. Batting first, Sri Lanka posted 325/8, a total that hides the shape of their innings. They were 255/2 after 41 overs and looked set for 350-plus, before losing six wickets in the last nine overs while adding only 70 runs. Kamindu Mendis (131) and Pavan Rathnayake (77) built the platform. Kamindu recorded his career-best, reportedly more than doubling his previous best. Rathnayake has been in outstanding form in the series, with 427 runs at 106.75 — but that average rests on only four dismissals, a sample far too small to be treated as a reliable measure of a batter's true level. The pair shared a 146-run stand, and Sri Lanka also put together an 87-run partnership. But in the closing overs Shaheen Afridi removed both Kamindu and Dasun Shanaka to break the innings. Shanaka played a brisk hand but could not last, and Sri Lanka could not convert their platform into a bigger total. Chasing 326, Pakistan stumbled badly. Maaz fell as the first wicket, and Babar Azam — from whom a 'special' chase-defining innings was expected — departed without scoring. Pakistan were 14/2 and the match looked to be slipping back towards Sri Lanka. Coming four days after a 110 all out, a 326 chase looked almost impossible. Babar's duck was the game's central irony: the man expected to deliver the decisive knock could not even get off the mark. From there, Fakhar Zaman and Saad Baig steadied the chase. Saad Baig, 19, struck his maiden international half-century just hours before his 20th birthday. His 74 did more than add runs; it bought Fakhar time to find his rhythm. Fakhar started slowly but, once set, brought up his hundred off 84 balls, underlining the tempo he maintained. The stand dragged Pakistan back into the game and simplified the chase — but it did not, on its own, seal it. Fakhar's innings, however, did not come without help. He was dropped three times — on 6, on 69 and on 106. Maheesh Theekshana put him down twice. Had any one of those chances been taken, the match could have swung the other way; this was the most decisive and least discussed passage of the game. Most reports buried those reprieves under talk of 'passion' and 'luck', when the truth is that Sri Lanka's fielding pushed the match towards Pakistan. After Fakhar fell, Pakistan came under pressure again. Salman departed, and at one stage the hosts looked like falling short. But Minhas and Mohammad Nawaz shared a vital 94-run sixth-wicket stand. Nawaz struck a brisk 61 off 31 balls to bring Pakistan to the brink of the target, an innings that arrived exactly when belief in the lower order was thinning and the required rate was climbing. Then came the familiar wobble. With just two runs needed, Minhas and Faheem fell in quick succession. Pakistan were seven down and the game was alive again, with Sri Lanka still a chance away. It showed that the 94-run stand had made the chase 'easier' but not 'safe' — the win was still to be finished. Eventually Shaheen Afridi ended it with a six — the same Shaheen who had dismissed Kamindu and Shanaka to trigger Sri Lanka's collapse. The match's finest irony: the bowler who turned it with the ball finished it with the bat. Haris Rauf chipped in with two late wickets, using the short ball to trouble the lower order. Pakistan's six wickets in the last nine overs were the real backbone of the comeback. A telling asymmetry runs through the coverage. Batting figures are abundant — 127, 74, 61, 131, 77 — while the bowlers' efforts are mostly described as events rather than numbers. Shaheen is credited with 'bringing Pakistan back', yet no economy rate or spell figures are given. Minhas's left-arm spin is called 'expensive', without saying how expensive. As a result, the reader cannot judge the weight of the bowling turnaround and must simply accept the author's verdict. It is also worth flagging the gaps in the source material. One passage notes '46 needed from 30 balls' with no account of what followed; and whether Sri Lanka finished 325/8 should be checked against the official scorecard. The fact that England were the third team in this tri-series — a structural detail a reader needs — is never stated clearly. Kamindu's 'more than doubling' claim and the three dropped catches both deserve independent verification, since the entire hero narrative rests on them. What is certain is that this was a thriller in which Pakistan produced a stirring comeback under pressure. Chasing 326 from 14/2, the 94-run stand, the late drama and a winning six all combine into a victory that cannot be reduced to a single century. Fakhar Zaman deserves credit — but so do Saad Baig, Nawaz, Minhas, Shaheen and Rauf. Teams that lean on one player usually lose such games; Pakistan won this one collectively, even if the headlines landed on someone else.