They came for the Champions Trophy 2025 with a depleted squad without regular skipper Pat Cummins, pacers Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood, and all-rounders Mitchell Marsh and Marcus Stoinis. But Australia still managed to fulfill their first aim of qualifying for the semifinals of the eight-team event.
On Friday, Australia secured a place in the last-four stage of the Champions Trophy after their final league match in Group B against Afghanistan was abandoned because of rain. Australia were at 109/1 in 12.5 overs into their chase of a challenging total of 274 when the match officials decided that the match could not be continued as heavy rain had left huge puddles in the Gaddafi Stadium ground.
Australia captain Steve Smith was relieved that they managed to qualify for the knockouts with a win against arch-rivals England and two no-results against South Africa and Afghanistan. Australia finished with four points in the standings with the second spot to be decided by Saturday's clash between South Africa and England.
It's a good result, and, that's what we were after at the start of the tournament, to a finish in the top two and heading to the semis. It's satisfying so far.
Though the semifinal spot was sealed, Australia were facing uncertainty over the fitness of Matt Short ahead of next week's semifinals. Short suffered a quad injury during Friday's match against Afghanistan and he will be assessed further on Saturday.
I think he was struggling, wasn't moving well. I think he'll be struggling with the short gap between games.
Friday's abandonment in Lahore has left Afghanistan on the brink of elimination from the competition after reaching three points. They will need a mathematical favour from England, who will have to win by a margin of over 207 runs and cause South Africa's net run rate to drop below that of Afghanistan.
Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi was disappointed the match was abandoned. Though they made an indifferent start with the ball, Shahidi said the total of 270 was a good one.
Gave them too much width and gave them many hitting options. We'll learn from this. About the tournament, you never know. We still have hopes, hopefully England win big.
Sediqullah Atal overcame an early examination from Johnson and Ben Dwarshuis to hit 85 off 95 deliveries, while Azmatullah Omarzai hammered 67 off 63 balls to help Afghanistan post a competitive total.
“He (Atal) played really well today, first two games he didn't play the way we expected but his comeback was good. First ICC event for him, and he played well under pressure. Omarzai is top-class, that's why he got ODI Player of the Year, he always performs for us. He (Omarzai) plays a good role, he took a fifer against England and today also he played with a positive intent under pressure.”
Shahidi struggled to get going, making a scratchy 20 off 49 balls at a strike-rate of 40.81.
I think today was a bad day for me as a batter. I will speak with the coach later on about where I went wrong, it was a slow innings strike rate-wise. Will learn from this..
