Salman Agha's century was the highlight in Pakistan's victorious start to the tri-series as they beat Sri Lanka by 37 runs on Sunday (October 18) in Rawalpindi. Despite their poor finish with the bat, Pakistan managed to go past 300 on the back of Agha's ton. In reply, Sri Lanka recovered from their wobbly start and put themselves in contention to hunt down 306 following a century stand between Pavan Rathnayake and Janith Liyanage. However, they wilted under pressure towards the end to eventually go down.

Pakistan didn't get off to the greatest of starts after being asked to bat first. Fakhar Zaman cashed in on a free-hit to hammer a six early in his innings and went on to add a couple of boundaries as well. However, Dilshan Madushanka removed both the Pakistan openers inside the first six overs. That didn't deter Babar Azam and Saad Baig who fetched early boundaries in their innings to get going. The two batters continued to bat in positive fashion with Baig in particular dealing in sixes. Eshan Malinga had to come back for his second spell to break the partnership as Babar Azam failed to control a pull to get dismissed five short of a half-century.

Malinga struck in his next over as well with another short-ball accounting for the other well-set batter Baig who got a top edge. While those two wickets forced Pakistan to retreat, Sri Lanka couldn't press home the advantage as Agha and Hasan Nawaz steadied the ship with an impressive partnership. The boundaries started flowing again after the duo gained confidence. After Agha brought up his fifty, Nawaz hammered a six over deep midwicket to put Pakistan on top. But Sri Lanka managed to strike at the right time once again to get rid of Nawaz.

Even though Agha turned on the heat in the slog overs, Arafat Minhas's dismissal completely derailed Pakistan. In the final six overs, the hosts managed to add only 37 runs while losing their last five wickets including that of centurion Agha who failed to clear the man at long on. Despite that poor finish, a total of 305 appeared to be more than good enough for the home side as Sri Lanka stuttered in the run chase. A top edge saw Avishka Fernando fall early in the innings and Kusal Mendis struggled to get going, batting on 13 off 31 at one stage.

Kusal was finally put out of his misery by Faheem Ashraf and that brought Rathnayake out to the middle. Rathnayake made a nervy start as he was beaten on numerous occasions at the start of his innings. To make matters worse, he saw Shaheen Afridi strike twice in two overs that put the visitors under severe pressure. At the end of the 20th over, Sri Lanka were 91/4 and desperately needed a huge partnership to put themselves back in contention. Rathnayake and Liyanage provided exactly that as they kept finding the boundary regularly to help Sri Lanka crawl back into the contest.

Rathnayake brought up his half-century after the second drinks break before launching Afridi for successive sixes as the momentum slowly appeared to shift. Against the run of play, Pakistan made a crucial breakthrough when Rathnayake hit one straight to cover in tame fashion to give the hosts an opening. But Dasun Shanaka came out all guns blazing as he hit Faheem for a couple of boundaries before nailing the pull off Minhas. At the other end, it was Haris Rauf's turn to dent Sri Lanka as he picked up the other half-centurion Liyanage. That meant the onus was on Shanaka to get the job done alongside the Sri Lankan lower order.

Afridi opted to bowl himself out immediately in order to go for the kill and that ploy paid dividends as the skipper bagged the big wicket of Shanaka, effectively sealing the game for his side. On expected lines, Sri Lanka's tail caved in without a fight with Naseem Shah and Rauf completing the formalities to seal the win.

Brief scores: Pakistan 305 in 49.5 overs (Salman Agha 107, Babar Azam 45; Eshan Malinga 4-46) beat Sri Lanka 268 in 48.1 overs (Pavan Rathnayake 79, Janith Liyanage 60; Shaheen Afridi 3-55, Naseem Shah 2-43) by 37 runs