{"id":21472,"date":"2026-10-14T20:24:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-14T20:24:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/mendis-guides-sri-lanka-to-eight-wicket-win-pakistan-take-t20i-series\/"},"modified":"2026-10-14T20:29:57","modified_gmt":"2026-10-14T20:29:57","slug":"mendis-guides-sri-lanka-to-eight-wicket-win-pakistan-take-t20i-series","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/mendis-guides-sri-lanka-to-eight-wicket-win-pakistan-take-t20i-series\/","title":{"rendered":"Mendis guides Sri Lanka to eight-wicket win, Pakistan take T20I series"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Mohsin Ali<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>RAWALPINDI: Sri Lanka captain Kusal Mendis struck an unbeaten 87 to lead his side to an eight-wicket victory over Pakistan in the third and final T20I at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on Tuesday, though the hosts clinched the three-match series 2-1.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan, who had won the first match by four wickets on October 9 and then recorded an 82-run win in the second game on October 11, were denied a clean sweep as Sri Lanka chased down 169 in 17.1 overs.<\/p>\n<p>Batting first, Pakistan made 168 for eight in their 20 overs. Sahibzada Farhan continued his strong run with a third successive half-century in the series, scoring 76 off 47 balls with seven fours and three sixes. Arafat Minhas added important runs late in the innings, remaining not out on 34 off 20 balls, including two fours and two sixes.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan started positively before Eshan Malinga struck twice in the fourth over, removing Fakhar Zaman for 12 and Maaz Sadaqat for nought to leave the home side at 34 for two. Farhan and Hasan Nawaz put on 33 for the third wicket, but Hasan was dismissed for 16.<\/p>\n<p>Sri Lanka then applied further pressure through Dasun Shanaka, who dismissed Khawaja Nafay for three, Mohammad Imran for six and Abdul Samad for 15 as Pakistan slipped to 102 for six. Farhan and Minhas steadied the innings with a 66-run stand for the seventh wicket, helping Pakistan reach a defendable total. Farhan was dismissed on the penultimate ball, while Minhas stayed unbeaten.<\/p>\n<p>Shanaka finished with figures of 3-21, while Malinga and Nuwan Thushara picked up two wickets each.<\/p>\n<p>Sri Lanka lost Lahiru Udara early for one when Mohammad Imran provided Pakistan the breakthrough. However, Kusal Mendis and Sineth Jayawardena revived the chase with a 59-run partnership for the second wicket.<\/p>\n<p>Jayawardena made 38 from 26 balls, hitting five fours and two sixes, before Arafat Minhas broke the stand. Kusal then combined with Kamindu Mendis to add an unbroken 98 runs for the third wicket, steering Sri Lanka home with ease.<\/p>\n<p>Kusal remained unbeaten on 87 from 48 deliveries, striking nine fours and four sixes, while Kamindu scored 40 not out off 27 balls.<\/p>\n<p>Pakistan and Sri Lanka will next feature in the ODI tri-series involving England, which starts in Rawalpindi on October 18. The final is set to be played at Lahore\u2019s Gaddafi Stadium on October 31.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kusal Mendis hit an unbeaten 87 as Sri Lanka beat Pakistan by eight wickets in Rawalpindi, while Pakistan won the T20I series 2-1.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":21471,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-21472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21475,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21472\/revisions\/21475"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21471"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.peakpoint.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}