Pakistan’s veteran cricketers produced one of the great finals finishes on 31 October 2026, chasing down 282 to beat Australia by one wicket with a single ball to spare and lift the IMC Over-40s World Cup at the Guyana National Stadium in Providence. The win drew formal congratulations this week from PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi, who praised the team on 4 November, and it completed a treble that, according to reports of the tournament, makes Pakistan the first country to hold world titles across all three veterans age categories.
- Final: 31 October 2026, Guyana National Stadium, Providence
- Australia: 281 for 6 in 45 overs (Greg Hunt 103)
- Pakistan: 282 for 9 in 44.5 overs, won by one wicket with one ball to spare
- Recovery: from 103 for 5, through Adnan Akmal (83) and Jawad Mansoor (62), a 115-run partnership
- Player of the Final: Syed Fareeduddin Agha
- Winning run: struck by captain Junaid Nainitalwala off the penultimate ball
- Tournament: 15 nations, played across Guyana from 17 to 31 October 2026
A Final That Swung Twice
Australia, choosing to bat, built their 281 for 6 around a century from Greg Hunt, who made 103 from 102 balls with four fours and six sixes. It looked more than enough when Pakistan’s chase collapsed to 103 for 5. What followed was the partnership of the tournament: Adnan Akmal and Jawad Mansoor added 115 runs, Akmal making 83 from 84 balls with 10 fours and a six, Mansoor 62 from 57 with seven fours and a six. Australia clawed both men back late, Akmal caught off Edwards and Mansoor dismissed by Panelli, leaving Pakistan 236 for 7 in the 42nd over and the match level again.
Photo: Caribbean Media Corporation (CANA News), via Burak Digital
The Last Over
With the tail exposed and the required rate climbing, the chase came down to the final balls. Fareeduddin Agha, later named Player of the Final for his all-round contribution, scrambled a single to keep the strike turning over, and last man and captain Junaid Nainitalwala drove Panelli through the covers for the winning run off the fifth ball of the 45th over. Pakistan finished on 282 for 9, champions by the narrowest margin the format allows. Five days on, the result deserves recording properly: it was a chase built on two career-defining innings from Akmal and Mansoor and finished by the captain with one wicket standing. It sits comfortably alongside the senior side’s recent surge, including the climb to fourth in the ICC ODI rankings and the Hong Kong Sixes plate title.
An Over-40s World Cup Treble No Country Has Managed
Masters cricket has grown into a serious circuit of its own. The International Masters Cricket series runs world cups for the Over-40s, Over-50s and Over-60s age groups, and the Guyana event drew 15 nations for 45-over matches that were no gentle exhibition: a century and a 281 total in a final are serious numbers by any standard. Pakistan’s campaign demanded nerve throughout: they came through a two-wicket semi-final against England before the one-wicket final, winning both knockouts with the chase alive to the last over.
Reports of the final describe the win as completing a historic set: with Over-50s and Over-60s world titles already in Pakistan’s cabinet, the Over-40s crown makes Pakistan the first country to be world champions across all three veterans age categories. Pakistan’s route to the trophy ran through a tense two-wicket semi-final win over England, in which they restricted England to 205 for 9 and chased it down with Fahad Jabbar’s 51 leading the way. The PCB chairman’s message this week congratulated the squad on behalf of the board, closing the loop on a tournament played half a world away in Guyana. For a generation of Pakistani cricketers who grew up in the shadow of the 1992 side, and for the masters circuit that keeps former first-class players in the game, it is a title worth savouring, in a month when Shaheen Shah Afridi’s T20I wicket record has given the current generation its own milestone to chase.
Sources
- CANA News (Caribbean Media Corporation): Akmal, Mansoor Shock Australia as Pakistan Lift Over40s World Cup Title, 1 November 2026
- Burak Digital: Pakistan Beat Australia to Win Over-40 Cricket World Cup 2026, 2 November 2026
- Daily The Destination: PCB Chairman Mohsin Naqvi Congratulates Pakistan on Over-40s World Cup Win, 4 November 2026
- Featured image: Pakistan’s Over-40s players lift the IMC Over-40s World Cup trophy behind the champions banner in Guyana. Photo: Burak Digital
- In-body image: Pakistan’s Over-40s team poses with the champions banner after the final. Photo: Caribbean Media Corporation (CANA News), via Burak Digital
Umar Farooq is the founder and editor of Good News Pakistan. An engineer by profession and a writer by passion, he started the site in December 2022 to share good news from Pakistan, and has since written and edited more than 200 articles about its people, sports, science, business and world records. He believes the story of Pakistan is bigger than its headlines, and that good news, told honestly, is worth telling every day.