Australia attain Champions Trophy semifinals after washout with Afghanistan, who’re left to attend on South Africa consequence.
Australia reached the Champions Trophy semifinals after their final group sport towards Afghanistan was abandoned because of rain and a moist outfield.
World Cup holders Australia, who achieved a report chase of 352 towards England within the opening sport, completed the group stage with 4 factors after its final two video games have been washed out in Rawalpindi and Lahore.
Afghanistan had three factors and are on the verge of an exit. To advance, they want South Africa to lose by an unbelievable margin of greater than 200 runs towards already eradicated England in Saturday’s Group B sport.
Afghanistan have been bowled out for 273 on the ultimate ball of their innings on Friday and Australia cruised to 109-1 in 12.5 overs when the rain returned. The outfield grew to become too sodden to proceed.
Travis Head’s 34-ball half-century had offered Australia with a rollicking begin towards some scratchy Afghanistan fielding and poor quick bowling. Rashid Khan couldn’t maintain onto a regulation catch when Head was on six. Head minimize free and motored Australia to 90-1 within the batting powerplay.
Substitute fielder Nangeyalia Kharote dropped Matthew Brief off Azmatullah Omarzai, however was dismissed two balls later when Gulbadin Naib took a sensible catch over his shoulder at mid-on whereas working backwards.
Quick bowling allrounder Omarzai, who grabbed his maiden five-wicket haul in Afghanistan’s beautiful eight-run win over England on the identical venue, was smacked for 43 off his 5 overs whereas Fazalhaq Farooqi additionally erred so much in his lengths and went for 32 off his three overs.
Left-handed batter Sediqullah Atal (85) missed out on a century, however Omarzai held one find yourself with a 67-ball 63 that included 5 sixes.
Spencer Johnson (2-49) and Ben Dwarshuis (3-47) struggled to regulate the swing with the brand new ball however each quick bowlers got here again strongly with the previous ball.
Opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz fell early for the third consecutive time when Johnson yorkered him with out scoring off his fifth authentic ball.
Ibrahim Zadran, who recorded the event’s highest rating of 177 towards England on the identical venue on Wednesday, made 22 and was gutted when he was caught at level in Adam Zampa’s (2-48) first over.
Captain Steve Smith squeezed Afghanistan within the center overs together with his spinners as Matthew Brief (0-21) conceded only one six in his tidy seven overs and Glenn Maxwell bowled a maiden whereas discovering the sting of Rahmat Shah’s bat (12).
Atal tried to speed up after captain Hashmatullah Shahidi struggled to maintain the scoreboard shifting, however Atal was caught by Smith at brief cowl in Johnson’s return spell.
Mohammad Nabi and Gulbadin Naib went cheaply and Afghanistan slipped to 199-7. Omarzai farmed the strike and accomplished his half-century off 54 balls and boosted Afghanistan’s morale.
