Afghanistan Vs Australia 10th match, Group B ICC Champions Trophy 2025
Australia Enter Champions Trophy Semis After Game Gets Washed Out
Australia have qualified for the semi-finals of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 after a rain-truncated clash against Afghanistan.
The weather intervened to stop play while Australia were on 109/1 in the 13th over in their run chase, with Travis Head leading the charge, not out on 59 off 40 deliveries, and Steve Smith alongside him on 19.
The match was ultimately abandoned, meaning that Australia progress to the semi-finals.
Rashid Khan had a great chance to remove Head on 6, moving his feet brilliantly yet failing to close his fingers round the ball.
But it was Matt Short who was first to go, edging to Gulbadin Naib off Azmatullah Omarzai for 20.
Earlier, Sediqullah Atal was Afghanistan’s top scorer as they reached 273 all out, making 85 before being caught by Smith from the bowling of Spencer Johnson.
Johnson had taken the early wicket of Rahmanullah Gurbaz in the first over, leaving Afghanistan on 3/1.
But Ibrahim Zadran and Sediqullah weathered the storm.
Zadran went for 22, caught by Marnus Labuschagne from the bowling of Adam Zampa, followed by Rahmat Shah, caught behind by Josh Inglis off the bowling of Glenn Maxwell.
That put Afghanistan on 91/3 – but a solid half-century from Sediqullah, joined at the crease by captain Hashmatullah Shahidi, looked as if it would set them up nicely for the second half of their innings.
But the skipper reached only 20 from 49 balls and was dismissed by Zampa courtesy of another Labuschagne catch.
After that, the tail began to wobble, with Mohammad Nabi run out for a single, and Gulbadin caught for four.
But Azmat and Rashid put up some resilience for the eighth wicket – scoring 36 off 33 balls.
Earlier, Shahidi won the toss and elected to bat first.
After Australia got their tournament off to a flying start by chasing down the highest-ever score at an ICC event against England, rain played spoilsport in their next, forcing them to share points with South Africa, who both are now on three points each and occupying the top two spots in Group B.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, lost their opening game to South Africa by 107 runs but came back in stunning fashion to complete an incredible triumph against England to knock them out of contention for a semi-final spot.
The two teams go head-to-head today to try and grab a last-four spot in a winner takes it all contest in Lahore.
Let’s recap the match now, it all started with Hashmatullah Shahidi winning the toss and sticking to his team’s strength by opting to bat first. Afghanistan looked shaky at the start again, but Sediqullah Atal put his hands up and played a counter-attacking knock after starting off in a sluggish manner. It was a tussle in the middle orders but the Aussie spinners did well to pick up wickets at regular intervals before Spencer Johnson came back on and got his side a big breakthrough. Atal missed on a ton, but Azmatullah Omarzai yet again showed his prowess in this format by scoring a quickfire half-century and took his side over the 270-mark. In reply, Australia got off to a flying start but Afghanistan did create a couple of catching opportunities, which were put down before Travis Head got into rhythm and knocked a big chunk off the target in a flash. However, the rain came in before Afghanistan could even give Rashid Khan a go, and it was pretty heavy. Unfortunately, even after stopping, the ground just couldn’t be readied in time to get at least 20 overs in the chase and constitute a full game.