BackLAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Pakistan captain Shaheen Shah Afridi won the toss and elected to field in the cricket ODI tri-series final against Sri Lanka on Saturday.
Pakistan suffered a major blow when last Sunday night’s hero Shadab Khan was ruled out of the final after getting a blow on the head in the last game against Sri Lanka.
Shadab sealed Pakistan’s place in the final with a thrilling one-wicket victory over England as he smashed unbeaten 113 off 96 balls and shared an extraordinary last-wicket partnership of 89 runs with Haris Rauf.
Afridi said at the toss that Shadab was “feeling unwell” and was replaced by seam all-rounder Faheem Ashraf in the only change Pakistan made from the last game, which they lost by eight wickets to Sri Lanka, which eliminated England from the final.
The Pakistan Cricket Board later said in a statement that Shadab was ruled out “due to medical reason” after being struck by a bouncer against Sri Lanka in the last game.
Sri Lanka, which will be defending a total for the first time in the tournament, also made one change and brought in Maheesh Theekshana for his first game in the tournament in place of Malinga.
Sri Lanka has showed a marked improvement after losing the opening game to Pakistan at Rawalpindi when they chased down second highest-ever score of 430 against England. They also beat Pakistan in the return game at Lahore after bowling out the host for 110 runs and then fought hard in scoring 331 runs against England in a chase of 387 runs.
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Lineups:
Sri Lanka: Kamindu Mendis, Avishka Fernando, Kusal Mendis (captain), Pavan Rathnayake, Sahan Arachchige, Janith Liyanage, Dasun Shanaka, Dunith Wellalage, Maheesh Theekshana, Asitha Fernando, Dilshan Madushanka.
Pakistan: Maaz Sadaqat, Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam, Saad Baig, Salman Ali Agha, Hasan Nawaz, Arafat Minhas, Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Shah Afridi (captain), Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf