Lahore: Australia secured their place in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 semi -finals following their significant clashes against Afghanistan due to rain at Gaddafi Stadium on Friday.
Australia, who started their campaign with a wonderful victory over the Arc Revolution England, won with four points as the remaining two matches ended without any results.
Two -time champions, resulting in the first team to qualify for the final Four from Group B, while Afghanistan is not out of the tournament even if England defeated South Africa on Saturday as the Asian team is behind Proteas in terms of pure run rate.
Chasing Afghanistan’s 273 -run target, Australia started aggressively, with Sir breaking the fifty and broke his team to offer his team an initial pace.
However, Azmatullah Umarzai removed the opening stand by removing Matthew Short, which scored 20 off 15 balls with three boundaries and six.
With Australia at 109/1 at 12.5 overs, the game was stopped due to heavy rainfall, which both teams were waiting for the weather to clean.
Earlier, Omarzai’s explosive innings scored a total of 273 runs to Afghanistan despite the encouraging fightback by the Asi Bowlers.
After Sidiqullah Atal’s 85 foundation, the right -handed batsman scored 63 runs with a limit and five sixes, which helped Afghanistan recover from medium innings.
Batting first, Afghanistan collected 273/10 in its 50 overs.
Afghanistan started screaming in its innings when Spencer Johnson cleared Rehmanullah Garbaz on the fifth delivery of the match.
After the initial hiccup, Atal joined Ibrahim Zadran in the middle and started recovery.
They both shared a significant 67 runs until Adam Zampa provided a very important progress after capturing Australia in the 14th upper place.
The right -handed opener scored 22 runs with two boundaries.
After that, Afghanistan suffered another setback when Rahmat Shah (12) fell victim to Glenn Maxwell in the 19th over, which led to a total of 91/3.
After that, Atal combined with captain Hashmatullah Shahidi before withdrawing in the 32nd over, a unilateral 68 -run partnership for the fourth wicket.
He remained the top scorer of Afghanistan with 95 ball 85, including six fours and three sixes.
His dismissal gave birth to a short end of the middle order, which saw Afghanistan immediately beaten by three wickets and, as a result, went to 199/7 in 40 overs.
But a timely half -century by all -rounder Omarzai in the form has brought Afghanistan a tremendous tomorrow.
He also shared a major partnership of 36 for the eighth wicket with Rashid Khan, which scored 19 off 17 balls.
For Australia, Ben Davoreshis took three skulls while Johnson and Zama took two wickets. Glenn Maxwell and Nathan Ellis made a skull a skull.
The match was an important for both sides as the winning team will join the semi -finals.
On Wednesday, the Afghans kept their dream alive against England, and defeated them by eight runs. On the other hand, Asez Zukokovs to hit England, which is the highest score in the history of the Champions Trophy.
Afghanistan and Australia have faced each other four times in ODI cricket, on all four occasions, the Kangaroos emerges. The Afghan team has not yet claimed a victory against them.
