LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Australia reached the Champions Trophy semifinals after its last group game against Afghanistan was abandoned because of rain and a wet outfield on Friday.
Australia, which achieved a record chase of 352 against England in the opening game, finished the group stage with four points after its last two games were washed out in Rawalpindi and Lahore.
Afghanistan had three points and was on the verge of an exit. To advance, it needs South Africa to lose by an improbable margin of more than 200 runs against already eliminated England in Saturday’s Group B game.
Afghanistan was bowled out for 273 on the final ball and Australia cruised to 109-1 in 12.5 overs when the rain returned. The outfield became too sodden to continue.
“The first objective was obviously to get to the semifinals, (and) we are there now,” Australia captain Steve Smith said. “The guys did a really good job to restrict them to 270 and then we were in a pretty good position when the game got called off.”
Travis Head’s 34-ball half-century gave Australia a rollicking start against some scratchy Afghanistan fielding and poor fast bowling. Rashid Khan couldn’t hold onto a regulation catch when Head was on 6. Head cut loose and motored Australia to 90-1 in the batting powerplay.
Substitute fielder Nangeyalia Kharote dropped Matthew Short off Azmatullah Omarzai but Short was dismissed two balls later when Gulbadin Naib took a smart catch over his shoulder at mid-on while running backwards.
Fast bowling allrounder Omarzai, who grabbed his maiden five-wicket haul in Afghanistan’s stunning eight-run win over England at the same venue, was smacked for 43 off his five overs while Fazalhaq Farooqi also erred a lot in his lengths and went for 32 off his three overs.
Atal and Omarzai strike half-centuries
Left-handed batter Sediqullah Atal (85) missed out on a century but Omarzai held one end up with a 67-ball 63 that included five sixes.
Spencer Johnson (2-49) and Ben Dwarshuis (3-47) struggled to control the swing with the new ball but both fast bowlers came back strongly with the old ball.
Opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz fell early for the third consecutive time when Johnson yorkered him without scoring off his fifth legitimate ball.
Ibrahim Zadran, who recorded the tournament’s highest score of 177 against England at the same venue on Wednesday, made 22 and was gutted when he was caught at point in Adam Zampa’s (2-48) first over.
Captain Steve Smith squeezed Afghanistan in the middle overs with his spinners as Matthew Short (0-21) conceded just one six in his tidy seven overs and Glenn Maxwell bowled a maiden while finding the edge of Rahmat Shah’s bat (12).
Atal tried to accelerate after captain Hashmatullah Shahidi struggled to keep the scoreboard moving, but Atal was caught by Smith at short cover in Johnson’s return spell.
Mohammad Nabi and Gulbadin Naib went cheaply and Afghanistan slipped to 199-7. Omarzai farmed the strike and completed his half-century off 54 balls and boosted Afghanistan’s morale.
“We should have scored 300 plus, but they bowled really well, especially in the middle overs,” Shahidi said. “We didn’t started well (with the ball), and gave too many hitting options to them, hopefully we learn from this.”
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The Associated Press
