Pakistan chase a clean sweep in Rawalpindi as Sri Lanka play to avoid a whitewash

Pakistan have already won the series, and the last T20I in Rawalpindi leaves Sri Lanka playing only to avoid a 3-0 sweep

Sri Lanka walk out at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Tuesday evening with the series gone. Pakistan sealed it with a game in hand, taking the opener by four wickets and the second T20I by 82 runs, and the only question left on this tour is whether the tourists return home without a win.

The gap between the sides in the second match was set by Pakistan's 215 for 3, their highest T20I total at home and their second-highest in all men's T20Is, behind the 232 for 6 made against England at Nottingham in 2021.

Sri Lanka answered with 133 for 7. They have changed captain, coach and batting order over the past year without settling on a method, and the final night in Rawalpindi is the last chance on this trip to show one.

A record total at Pindi

Pakistan's innings in the second T20I carried 13 sixes, equal second-most by the side in a men's T20I innings and two short of the 15 they struck against Ireland in Dublin in 2024.

The platform came early. Sahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman put on 55 for the first wicket before Zaman fell for 22, and Farhan then added 88 with Maaz Sadaqat.

Farhan made 73 from 44 balls with four fours and five sixes, a second substantial innings in two matches as captain after his 89 in the opener.

Maaz Sadaqat four short

Maaz Sadaqat was the innings, scoring 96 from 51 balls with six fours and seven sixes before he was dismissed off the final delivery reaching for the hundred.

The 21-year-old, playing only his tenth international, had made 50 from 29 balls in the first match. "I was trying to make the most of my form," he said afterwards.

His captain was warmer still. "He is playing brilliantly," Farhan said. "It would have been great if he had scored a hundred."

Pakistan's bowlers finish the job

Mohammad Imran returned 3-11 from his four overs and Salman Mirza took 2-28 as the chase came apart, with only four Sri Lanka batters reaching double figures.

Maheesh Theekshana was left unbeaten on 32 from 26 balls and Chamindu Wickramasinghe made 29 from 24. Lahiru Udara's 91 in the opener remains the one innings of real weight Sri Lanka have produced in the series.

Captain Kusal Mendis did not look past his batters. "Batters need to take responsibility including me," he said, adding that the pitch was a batting surface and that his side had needed at least 200.

Seamer Nuwan Thushara pointed at the field. "If we had taken those catches, we could have reduced their total by another 20 to 30 runs," he said.

Changes on the table

With the series won, Pakistan have room to look at their bench, and left-arm wristspinner Sufyan Moqim is the likeliest change after modest returns from legspinner Abrar Ahmed across the first two matches.

The counter-argument inside the camp is the obvious one: a batting order scoring at this rate is not an order anyone is in a hurry to disturb.

Sri Lanka, coached by Gary Kirsten, have their own calls to make, with Viyaskanth Vijayakanth in contention and Dushmantha Chameera available if he is passed fit.

What Farhan wants from the last night

Pakistan's captain has set the bar at the total rather than the result. "If we continue this way we will end up scoring more than 200 every time, so we will play with the same intensity," Farhan said.

He has been careful not to treat a dead rubber as a lesser night. "If I play my 50th or 100th T20 match, the demand of T20 cricket will remain the same," he said.

Conditions should suit him. The Rawalpindi surface has played for the batters through the series, and a pleasant evening is forecast for the close of the tour.

The third T20I begins under lights at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, with Pakistan 2-0 up and Sri Lanka playing for the consolation that has eluded them all tour.

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