Sri Lanka chased down 430 at Rawalpindi on Thursday, reaching 430 for 8 with one ball to spare to beat England by two wickets — the second-highest successful run chase in the history of one-day internationals, and a result that left Harry Brook’s record double century on the losing side.
The two innings produced 859 runs, according to ESPNcricinfo, which described the match as a shootout and places the chase second on the all-time list. None of the filings this desk has read names the higher one.
From 24 for 2
Sri Lanka captain Kusal Mendis won the toss and chose to bowl — a decision that looked indefensible for most of the afternoon, and worse still when he was run out without facing a ball, beaten by Gus Atkinson’s fingertips in the fifth over of the reply. That left Sri Lanka 24 for 2.
What followed was built on four innings:
| Batter | Runs | Balls |
|---|---|---|
| Pavan Rathnayake | 130 | 106 |
| Avishka Fernando | 97 | 83 |
| Dasun Shanaka | 97 | 50 |
| Janith Liyanage | 61* | 27 |
Opener Avishka Fernando and Rathnayake rebuilt from the collapse, Rathnayake making the only century of the chase. Dasun Shanaka then struck 97 from 50 balls — the innings the Daily Mirror calls the “game-changing” one — before Janith Liyanage finished it with 61 not out from 27.
ESPNcricinfo credits heavy dew with helping Sri Lanka in the second half of the chase.
The last two balls
England were still in it at the death. Josh Tongue yorked Dunith Wellalage and Eshan Malinga with successive deliveries, and finished with 3 for 79. But No. 10 Asitha Fernando got Liyanage back on strike with six needed from the final two balls, and Liyanage hit Tongue over long-off for six to win it.
The arithmetic closes exactly: Sri Lanka were on 424 needing six, and finished on 430 — the target to the run, with two wickets and one ball in hand.
Brook’s record, and the ball count
Brook made 202 and reached 200 off 114 balls, the fastest double century in the 55-year history of the format, beating India’s Shubman Gill, who got there in 117 balls against the West Indies on 30 September. It was also England’s first ODI double hundred by any batter, and England’s 429 for 4 is the highest total Sri Lanka has ever conceded.
The three newsrooms covering the innings do not agree on how many balls Brook’s final score of 202 took: the Daily Mirror says 115, Hiru News says 116, and ESPNcricinfo’s scorecard also gives 116. The discrepancy does not touch the record itself — that is measured at the 200 mark, off 114, and all three agree on the 202.
Brook’s 202 carried 21 fours and 10 sixes. Joe Root made 69, Will Jacks 66 not out from 30 balls, and Tom Banton 50. Wellalage was Sri Lanka’s most successful bowler with 2 for 56 from his 10 overs.
Not reported
Ada Derana filed on the result under the headline “Sri Lanka stun England by chasing down 430 to win as ODI records tumble” (adaderana.lk/news/250405), but the site has now returned a CloudFront 403 to this desk for 35 consecutive days and no publication date could be extracted, so it is named here rather than cited.
No filing this desk has seen states Sri Lanka’s own previous highest successful chase, or confirms whether Liyanage’s 61 not out from 27 balls is a Sri Lankan record for the position.
This was the third match of the Pakistan ODI tri-series. As this desk reported before play, Sri Lanka and England both came into it without a point while Pakistan had won both their matches.
Update: Rathnayake’s name goes on the Rawalpindi honours board
Pavan Rathnayake’s innings has been added to the official Honours Board at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium, Hiru News reported at 7.05 a.m. on Friday. He was also named Player of the Match.
Hiru gives the innings as 130 from 106 balls with 15 fours and 3 sixes. Every one of those figures matches the ESPNcricinfo scorecard exactly, which records Rathnayake c Banton b Curran, 130 off 106, 159 minutes, 15 fours, 3 sixes, at a strike rate of 122.64 — a useful confirmation, given that three outlets could not agree on the ball count for Brook’s double century in the same match. ESPNcricinfo independently lists Rathnayake as Player of the Match.
The honours board placement itself is carried only by Hiru. ESPNcricinfo’s match report and scorecard do not mention it, so that detail rests on a single source.
It is worth being precise about what the innings was. Rathnayake’s was the only century of the chase — Shanaka fell three short on 97 and Liyanage finished unbeaten on 61 — so in a pursuit of 430 built by four batters, the hundred that anchored it was his.
Update: where England’s defence broke
Three days on, the Daily Mirror returned to the match in a preview of England’s next fixture, identifying Sam Curran as the bowler the chase was built against. He conceded 103 runs.
The scorecard bears it out. Curran’s 9-0-103-2 was the only hundred conceded by a bowler on either side, and his economy of 11.44 was England’s worst by a distance — Dawson went at 7.10, Overton 7.70, Atkinson 8.14, Jacks 8.20, and Tongue 8.94 despite taking the three wickets. England’s six bowlers conceded 428 between them; the remaining two runs of Sri Lanka’s 430 came as byes and leg-byes.
The Daily Mirror’s figure is exact against ESPNcricinfo — worth noting because the same outlet was the odd one out on Brook’s ball count in this match, giving 115 where Hiru and ESPNcricinfo both said 116. A transcribed bowling analysis holds up where a derived ball count did not.
The paper also links the defeat to England’s decision to leave out Adil Rashid, saying the omission “raised questions about England’s team selection” and that he is expected to return. England’s next match, against Pakistan at Lahore, is one they must win to stay in contention for the final.
