Pakistan beat Sri Lanka by 37 runs in the opening match of the one-day tri-series in Rawalpindi on Sunday, Hiru News reported. The triangular tournament also involves England.

Sri Lanka won the toss and invited Pakistan to bat. Pakistan were bowled out for 305 in 49.5 overs, with Salman Agha making 107 — the innings that decided the match. Babar Azam contributed 45 and Saad Baig 39, Hiru reported at 6.36 p.m. Colombo time, as the first innings closed.

Eshan Malinga was the best of the Sri Lankan bowlers with 4 for 46. Asitha Fernando took 3 for 59 and Dilshan Madushanka 2 for 67.

The chase

Set 306, Sri Lanka were all out for 268 in 48.1 overs.

The innings turned on one stand. Pawan Rathnayake and Janith Liyanage put on 119 for the fifth wicket, a partnership Hiru was reporting while it was still in progress at 9.12 p.m. Rathnayake finished with 79 and Liyanage with 60. Kamindu Mendis made 44.

Pakistan’s wickets were shared. Shaheen Afridi took 3 for 55, with Naseem Shah (2 for 43), Haris Rauf (2 for 48) and Faheem Ashraf (2 for 49) taking two apiece.

The margin is consistent across the filings: 305 against 268 is a difference of exactly 37, and the stated target of 306 is one more than Pakistan’s total, as it should be.

One detail is incomplete in both innings. The bowlers Hiru names account for nine of the ten wickets in each case — 4, 3 and 2 for Sri Lanka, and 3, 2, 2 and 2 for Pakistan. The reports list the principal bowlers rather than a full card, so the tenth dismissal in each innings is unattributed here; it is not a discrepancy between sources.

Where this sits in the tour

The triangular runs 18 to 31 October, so this was the first fixture of the tournament. It follows the three Twenty20 internationals played on 9, 11 and 13 October, and precedes a two-Test series beginning 9 November. Every match on the tour is in Rawalpindi, Lahore or Islamabad.

Sri Lanka went into the series without their first-choice opener. Pathum Nissanka was ruled out three days before the first match, not having been cleared to resume competitive cricket after a left hamstring injury sustained on the England tour, with Lahiru Udara called in as his replacement.

Update, 19 October: a second newsroom files, and the chase is explained

The Daily Mirror’s sports desk filed its own match report at 4.50 a.m. on Monday, attributing the result to Pakistan’s pace attack. It confirms the result, both totals, the 119-run fifth-wicket stand and every individual score above, and adds the detail the Hiru filings left out.

Agha’s ball count, recorded below as unreported, was 90. His 107 came off 90 deliveries, and it was his fourth ODI century. Pakistan reached 305 despite having lost four wickets by the 22nd over — so the century was a recovery innings, not a platform one.

How Sri Lanka lost a chase they were winning

The Daily Mirror’s account makes the shape of the chase clear for the first time. Sri Lanka lost their top four wickets early, Rathnayake and Liyanage then added their 119, and the pair took Sri Lanka to within 55 runs of victory with seven overs remaining — a position from which the match was theirs to lose.

Liyanage’s dismissal triggered the collapse. Sri Lanka lost their last five wickets for 15 runs and were bowled out for 268.

Those two figures fix the innings. Working back from the close: 268 less the 15 runs of the collapse puts the fifth wicket down at 253, and less the 119-run stand puts the fourth down at about 134. The derivation assumes the 119 was a completed partnership ending with the fifth wicket — neither filing states a fall-of-wickets line, so the figures are inferred, not reported.

On the bowling the two accounts agree exactly: Malinga 4 for 46, Asitha Fernando 3 for 59, Shaheen Afridi 3 for 55. The Daily Mirror adds that Dilshan Madushanka removed both openers, which matches the 2 for 67 Hiru gave him, and names Hasan Nawaz and Arafat Minhas among Pakistan’s contributors alongside Babar Azam and Saad Baig.

Neither filing describes Shaheen Afridi as Pakistan’s captain. An earlier version of this article did; the claim appears in neither source and has been removed. This desk’s own coverage of the preceding Twenty20 series names Sahibzada Farhan as Pakistan’s captain in that format.

Not reported

Neither filing gives a full scorecard, so there is no over-by-over account, no extras breakdown and no stated fall-of-wickets line — the reason the figures above are derived and the reason the tenth wicket in each innings stays unattributed. Neither names a player of the match, nor reports attendance or conditions.

Nothing published in these reports says when Sri Lanka next play, or against which of the two opponents.