Pakistan vs Sri Lanka Cricket: Head-to-Head Record, Live Score & Full Rivalry History

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Top answer: Pakistan holds the overall edge over Sri Lanka in international cricket, having won roughly 17–18 of their last 29–30 T20I meetings to Sri Lanka's 12, though Sri Lanka has historically had the better of them in Asia Cup finals specifically, beating Pakistan in both the 2022 and 2023 editions. The two sides' most recent high-stakes clash came at the 2026 T20 World Cup on February 28 in Kandy, where Pakistan won the match itself by 5 runs but were still eliminated from the tournament because they needed a 65-run margin of victory to qualify for the semi-finals on net run rate — one of the more heartbreaking results in recent World Cup history. In that same match, Pakistan's Sahibzada Farhan scored his second century of the tournament, finishing with 383 runs in the edition and breaking Virat Kohli's record for most runs in a single T20 World Cup.

Last updated August 1, 2026.

Different cricket data trackers count slightly different match totals depending on when their data was last updated, but they consistently agree on the same underlying story — Pakistan holds a real but not overwhelming edge, and recent meetings have been far closer than the historic head-to-head suggests.

The key recent trend: in their last four T20I meetings before the 2026 World Cup, the two sides split evenly — two wins each — a much tighter margin than the career head-to-head implies. This is a genuinely competitive rivalry right now, not a one-sided one.

This is where the keyword confusion tends to happen, so here's the clear timeline:

• Asia Cup 2000 final: Pakistan beat Sri Lanka to win their first-ever Asia Cup title, posting what was then a final-record 277/4.
• Asia Cup 2012: Pakistan won their second title — but the final was against Bangladesh (a 2-run thriller), not Sri Lanka.
• Asia Cup 2022 final: Sri Lanka beat Pakistan by 23 runs in Dubai to win their sixth Asia Cup title, chasing down Pakistan's 147 after being reduced to 58/5 themselves.
• Asia Cup 2023 (Super Four): Sri Lanka beat Pakistan in a last-ball, DLS-method thriller in Colombo to advance to the final (which they then lost to India).
• Asia Cup 2025: Worth clarifying directly since it's a common point of confusion — the 2025 Asia Cup final was Pakistan vs. India (India won by 5 wickets in Dubai), not Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka did not reach that final.

Overall Asia Cup finals record between the two: Sri Lanka has the edge in their direct final meetings (2022), while Pakistan's two career titles (2000, 2012) came against Sri Lanka and Bangladesh respectively.

This is the single biggest recent storyline in the rivalry, and it deserves the detail:

Both teams arrived at their Super 8 meeting at Pallekele International Stadium in Kandy on February 28, 2026, with Sri Lanka already mathematically eliminated after back-to-back losses to England and New Zealand. Pakistan, however, faced a brutal equation: they needed to beat Sri Lanka by 65 runs, or inside 13 overs, to leapfrog New Zealand's net run rate and reach the semi-finals.

Sri Lanka won the toss and chose to field. What followed was a batting masterclass: openers Sahibzada Farhan and Fakhar Zaman put on 176 for the first wicket — the highest opening partnership in Men's T20 World Cup history at the time, beating the previous record of 152 set by Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan. Farhan reached his century off 60 balls, his second hundred of the tournament, finishing the edition with 383 runs — surpassing Virat Kohli's long-standing record of 319 runs in a single T20 World Cup edition. Pakistan finished on 212/8 after later losing 8 wickets in a late collapse.

Sri Lanka's chase then produced genuine drama of its own. Needing 213 to win — but really just needing to get within 65 runs of the target to eliminate Pakistan regardless of the match result — Sri Lanka got agonizingly close. Captain Dasun Shanaka smashed an unbeaten 76 off 31 balls, including three consecutive sixes in the final over, and Sri Lanka finished on 207/6. Pakistan won the match by 5 runs — but it didn't matter. Sri Lanka's total meant Pakistan missed the required winning margin, and New Zealand advanced to the semi-finals instead.

It's a rare case of a team winning the match and still being eliminated by their own win margin — one of the more dramatic and unusual finishes in T20 World Cup history.

Before the World Cup, Pakistan toured Sri Lanka for a T20I series in January 2026. The series was tightly contested, consistent with the broader recent trend of evenly matched meetings between the two sides, rather than a clear one-sided result either way.

Pakistan Women and Sri Lanka Women also meet regularly in bilateral and multi-team tournaments, including recent T20I fixtures. This is tracked as a separate rivalry with its own head-to-head record from the men's teams — if you're specifically looking for the women's team fixture list or results, check the ICC or PCB/SLC official sites directly, since results are updated far more frequently than a single article can track.

• Live scores: official platforms like the ICC website, ESPNcricinfo, and each cricket board's official site (PCB for Pakistan, SLC for Sri Lanka) are the most reliable sources for ball-by-ball updates.
• Broadcast/streaming: rights holders vary by country and by tournament (bilateral series vs. ICC events have different broadcast deals) — check your local sports broadcaster or the ICC's official broadcast partner list for the specific series, since this changes tournament to tournament.
• Tickets: for bilateral series, check the host cricket board's official ticketing partner; for ICC events, tickets go through the ICC's official ticketing platform.