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Dushmantha Chameera held his nerve in a clutch final over to ensure Sri Lanka did not throw away a win they had spent the rest of the evening working for. He conceded three runs in the final over, building on a magnificent opening spell to deny Pakistan victory by six runs in a 184-run chase.The stakes were higher for Sri Lanka than they were for Pakistan, with a victory required for a place in the final, or it would be Zimbabwe playing that game on Saturday. And Sri Lanka played with a hunger they have rediscovered since they finally won a game on Pakistan soil on Tuesday. Kusal Mendis and Kamil Mishara’s 36-ball 66-run stand got them off to a flier, with Mishara ending up with 76 off 48 balls, and cameos lower down the order got them to 184.Right from the outset, Chameera hampered Pakistan with three top-order wickets in his first two overs. The chase looked as good as dead after the loss of the first four, with 43 runs on the board, but captain Salman Ali Agha’s unbeaten half-century kept Pakistan fighting on until the bitter end.A 56-run stand between Salman and Usman Khan brought Pakistan back into contention, and Mohammad Nawaz brought Pakistan right to the brink. The hosts were favourites when a six over cover reduced the equation to 10 in the final over, but Chameera got a wicket, nailed his Yorkers and squeezed Pakistan out.

Mendis, Mishara nail the early overs

Earlier in the evening, Pakistan strangled Sri Lanka in the first three overs. It started with a beautiful delivery Salman Mirza kissing Pathum Nissanka’s off bail. But when Faheem Ashraf was thrown the ball for the fourth over, Kusal Mendis picked his moment. Three boundaries saw helped him plunder 16, and Mohammad Wasim disappeared for 15 more when he replaced Ashraf for the powerplay’s final over.Even the spreading of the field struggled to contain Mendis and Mishara. When Nawaz came to bowl in the eighth over, Mendis cut him for four before Kamil Mishara slapped him for six. A late flurry put Sri Lanka on course to a match-defending total.

Salman stakes a T20I case

Salman has played every single Pakistan game this year, but has never convinced as a T20 batter. Today, finding himself in the sort of situation where what was required of him closely matched his best attributes, the Pakistan captain got stuck in. He began sedately, as he tends to do, but then worked himself into touch and took the game deep. Through the middle overs, his ability to play spin was on full display as the boundaries came regularly enough and the runs kept ticking over.When Sri Lanka turned to pace, Salman kept the pressure up, picking up 10 off Dasun Shanaka, smashing Eshan Malinga for six to keep Pakistan on track. Increasingly, by the end, Sri Lanka’s ability to starve Salman of the strike would prove crucial to holding Pakistan at bay; the final three overs, Salman was at the non-striker’s end for all but five balls, with his unbeaten heroics going in vain.

Chameera guts Pakistan

Pakistan felt they had built up a steady opening stand with Saim Ayub and Sahibzada Farhan setting up a platform in the powerplay in the first three overs. It was from that point onwards that Sri Lanka had cut loose in their innings, and the home openers were positioning themselves to do the same.But then, along came fast bowler Dushmantha Chameera. His extra pace beat Farhan for timing and forced him into dinking one straight to cover. The big wicket came two balls later, when a touch of inconsistent bounce had the ball strike Babar Azam below the knee roll, sending him back for a second duck in four innings. Another two balls later, a length delivery grew big on Fakhar Zaman, who skied it straight to midwicket. Pakistan had suddenly lost four wickets in ten balls, and following the end of the over, Chameera’s figures read 2-0-3-3.After conceding 14 in his third over when Pakistan were on the charge, Sri Lanka’s hopes of victory were slipping away. Pakistan needed ten to win with Agha still set. Chameera rolled his fingers over two length balls to start off and allowed just three in the first three balls, but it was the killer yorkers that followed which sealed the deal. Three deliveries that landed on the batters’ toes got rid of Ashraf, and did not leak a single run to spark celebrations in the Sri Lankan camp.

Abandoned Sri Lanka will probably be the happier team to get a point out of their washout against world champions Australia in Colombo on Saturday. The conditions didn’t look as bad a day before the game and even on Saturday when the two teams had walked out before toss time to assess the ground. But the rain picked up quickly, and even though the entire ground was covered, the match had to be abandoned about two and a half hours after the scheduled start time.The two teams came into this match with contrasting results in their opening games – Australia had beaten New Zealand by 89 runs in Indore and Sri Lanka had lost to India by 59 runs (via the DLS method) in Guwahati.Australia continue to top the table with three points and Sri Lanka have jumped to fifth place, but with a negative net run rate of -1.255. Australia were the favourites for this game – like they are in the tournament – as Sri Lanka have never beaten them in international cricket across 11 ODIs and eight T20Is.This also means Sri Lanka head into their next fixture – against England on October 11 – after what is now a gap of 10 days, having played India in the World Cup opener on September 30. Australia had flown into Colombo on Thursday from Indore and will continue to stay in Colombo to play Pakistan on October 8 before flying to Visakhapatnam to face India on October 9.Colombo is also set to host the India vs Pakistan match on Sunday, and the weather forecast doesn’t look too optimistic for that either.

Bangladesh women’s head coach Sarwar Imran suffered a minor stroke on Monday in Colombo, where the team is preparing for their World Cup opener against Pakistan.Team manager SM Golam Faiyaz confirmed the news to ESPNcricinfo, stating that Imran is now in a stable condition.”(Sarwar) Imran sir was feeling dizzy a couple of days ago, and it continued on Monday. We took him to the hospital where the doctors detected he had a minor brain stroke,” said Faiyaz.The manager said that Imran was released from the hospital on Tuesday. He is now recuperating in the team hotel, although he wanted to join Tuesday’s training session.”We asked sir to rest today,” Faiyaz said. “He is hopeful of going to the ground with us tomorrow (Wednesday).”Imran, aged 66, was appointed the women’s head coach in February this year, after Hashan Tillakaratne, the former Sri Lanka captain, left the role earlier in the year.Imran was also the men’s coach when the Bangladesh team played their inaugural Test in 2000.Bangladesh open their World Cup campaign against Pakistan in Colombo on Thursday. It will be their second appearance at the tournament, having made their debut in 2022 and scraped through qualifying for this year’s event.

Alice Capsey and Sarah Glenn headlined England’s four-wicket victory over Australia in their Women’s World Cup warm-up match in Bengaluru. After the legspinner claimed 5 for 32 to dismantle Australia’s middle and lower order, Capsey anchored the chase with an unbeaten 88.After a shaky start, Australia found stability through Phoebe Litchfield’s 71. However, after her dismissal, wickets continued to fall at regular intervals. Beth Mooney was forced to come in unusually low at No. 9, where she counterattacked with an unbeaten 59 off just 42 balls. Despite her efforts, Australia were bowled out for 247 in 34.4 overs.In reply, England suffered an early collapse, slipping to 32 for 3, but Sophia Dunkley and Emma Lamb steadied the innings with their half-centuries. But it was Capsey who was the difference-maker, pacing the chase well to take England home with 5.3 overs to spare.Kim Garth was the pick of the Australia bowlers, taking 2 for 17, but lacked support as the English batting line-up found its rhythm.

Rashid Khan will lead a strong-looking Afghanistan side at the upcoming men’s T20 Asia Cup in the UAE, with Noor Ahmad, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, AM Ghazanfar and Mohammad Nabi completing a formidable spin-bowling attack along with their captain.Afghanistan, the second-best side from Asia at the last men’s T20 World Cup behind champions India, have not played a single T20I since the start of 2025 and no international cricket since the Champions Trophy in February. They have, in fact, played just three T20Is in the last 12 months, against Zimbabwe in Harare in December 2024, in a series they won 2-1. They will play a triangular T20I series in Sharjah against hosts UAE and Pakistan from Friday ahead of the Asia Cup.From the squad that made the Zimbabwe tour, top-order dasher Hazratullah Zazai and batting allrounder Zubaid Akbari have been dropped, while left-arm spinner Nangeyalia Kharote has been moved to the reserves. Coming in are top-order batter Ibrahim Zadran, allrounder Sharafuddin Ashraf and Ghazanfar, the mystery spinner who hasn’t made his T20I debut in his short career so far.ESPNcricinfo Ltd

Ghazanfar has so far played 42 T20s since his debut in the format in April 2023. His ODI career – now 11 matches old – has been quite spectacular, though. At just 19, he has two five-wicket hauls already – the 6 for 26 against Bangladesh in Sharjah in November last year his best – and has been doing the rounds of the franchise T20 circuit, including at the IPL, the CPL, and the ILT20. He couldn’t make his IPL debut earlier this year though, as he picked up a back injury late last year on the tour of Zimbabwe, after being picked by Mumbai Indians for INR 4.80 crore (US$ 570,000 approx at the time).Related

• Pakistan, Afghanistan, UAE to play T20I tri-series in Sharjah

• How a break from cricket helped Rashid rediscover his best

He joins Rashid, who had a poor IPL 2025 but was in stellar form for Oval Invincibles at the Hundred before cutting his stint short for national duty, and Nabi, who recently played the Shpageeza Cricket League (Afghanistan’s domestic T20 tournament), which ended on July 31 with Nabi’s team, Mis Ainak Knights, losing in the final to Amo Sharks, who had among the Asia Cup squad Mohammad Ishaq, Ashraf, Azmatullah Omarzai and Fazalhaq Farooqi in their ranks.Noor, Chennai Super Kings’ star bowler at IPL 2025 and currently in action for Manchester Originals at the Hundred, Mujeeb, who is part of Barbados Royals at the CPL but not always a part of the starting XI, round off Afghanistan’s strongest department.The fast-bowling attack, meanwhile, is headlined by Farooqi and Naveen-ul-Haq, with Omarzai and Gulbadin Naib the fast-bowling allrounders.Ibrahim’s return gives the batting a strong look too, with Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Sediqullah Atal the other major top-order options. Darwish Rasooli and batting allrounder Karim Janat are the other top-order contenders.At the Asia Cup, Afghanistan are with Bangladesh, Hong Kong and Sri Lanka in Group B, while India, Oman, Pakistan and UAE are in Group A. Afghanistan’s campaign begins against Hong Kong in the opening match of the tournament, in Abu Dhabi on September 9.

Afghanistan squad for men’s T20 Asia Cup

Rashid Khan (capt), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Darwish Rasooli, Sediqullah Atal, Azmatullah Omarzai, Karim Janat, Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Mohammad Ishaq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, AM Ghazanfar, Noor Ahmad, Fareed Ahmad, Naveen-ul-Haq, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Reserve players: Wafiullah Tarakhil, Nangeyalia Kharote, Abdullah Ahmadzai