Shadab Khan made an unbeaten 113 from number eight to take Pakistan from 154 for 9 to a one-wicket win over England at the Gaddafi Stadium, a result that sends the hosts into the final of the one-day international tri-series.
Pakistan needed 88 runs with a single wicket standing when Shadab was joined by Haris Rauf. The pair added 89 without being separated, the highest last-wicket partnership in a successful run chase in the history of men’s one-day international cricket.
Duckett’s Century Sets England Up
England had looked comfortable for most of the day. Ben Duckett made 105 from 111 balls, his fifth one-day international hundred, and anchored an innings that reached 241 all out in 46.4 overs before Arafat Minhas removed him.
The total was lower than it might have been because Pakistan’s seamers kept finding wickets. Shaheen Shah Afridi took four for 46, and the last-wicket pair added 39 to push England past 240 rather than leaving them short of it.
That margin would come to matter a good deal.
A Collapse That Emptied the Ground
Pakistan’s reply began unconvincingly and then disintegrated. From 74 for 3 they lost six wickets for 80 runs, Fakhar Zaman, Saim Ayub, Babar Azam and Saad Baig among those dismissed cheaply as Jamie Overton and Liam Dawson took control. Overton finished with three for 43, Dawson with two for 19.
At 154 for 9 the match was effectively over, and the Gaddafi Stadium crowd treated it that way. Large numbers left after the ninth wicket fell, with 88 still required and the last pair at the crease.
What followed was a chase assembled almost entirely by one batter. Shadab finished with 113 not out from 96 balls, striking 13 fours and five sixes, while Haris Rauf contributed seven not out from 19 deliveries and gave the strike back as often as he could.
Shadab’s hundred was his first in international cricket, and no batter had previously scored 113 batting at number eight in a men’s one-day international. The best at that position had been 100 not out, a mark shared by Ireland’s Simi Singh and Bangladesh’s Mehidy Hasan Miraz.
The Review That Kept Pakistan Alive
The innings came close to ending 16 runs short of its conclusion. Shadab was given out leg before wicket on 97, with Pakistan still needing 21, and only a review saved him. Replays showed an inside edge and the decision was overturned.
Rauf hit the boundary that completed the win, with 17 balls to spare.
Shadab said afterwards that the position Pakistan were in never changed how he approached the chase. “So the idea was to keep believing,” he said, recalling an earlier innings against Australia in which he had batted through to the end without getting his side home.
He also pointed to conditions turning in Pakistan’s favour as dew arrived, and said he felt England’s bowlers were carrying pressure from their previous match, which he expected would push them into areas that suited him.
Asked what he and Rauf had discussed at the crease during the stand, he declined to repeat it. “I don’t think we can reveal on live TV,” he said.
Reaction and What Comes Next
The response from elsewhere in the game was immediate. Angelo Mathews wrote that Shadab had won the match for Pakistan out of nowhere, while Chris Woakes said a hundred not out from number eight was, in his words, “pretty special.”
Afridi said the squad intended to enjoy the evening before returning to normal preparation the following day.
England, who had already been beaten by Pakistan by 87 runs earlier in the competition and by Sri Lanka in a two-wicket finish, are now facing elimination from a tournament they entered as the visiting side with the strongest recent one-day record.
The tri-series final takes place on 31 October, with Pakistan already assured of a place in it.
