 "Afghanistan players walk off the field after heavy rain stops play during their Champions Trophy Group B match against Australia in Lahore. AP")
The ongoing ICC Champions Trophy witnessed another match ending in a No Result on Friday with Afghanistan and Australia collecting a point each after rain played spoilsport in their Group B clash in Lahore. It wasn’t a complete washout like Australia’s previous game against South Africa or the Group A meeting between hosts Pakistan and Bangladesh – both getting abandoned without a ball bowled in Rawalpindi.
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The Afghans, who had knocked England out with a thrilling eight-run victory at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium on Wednesday, posted a fighting 273 on the board after opting to bat, thanks to half-centuries from Sediqullah Atal (85) and Azmatullah Omarzai (67).
Two-time champions Australia, in reply, were off to a blazing start, racing to 109/1 after 12.5 overs with Travis Head unbeaten on 59 off 40 balls when the heavens opened above Lahore, bringing the game to a screeching halt.
Though the rain did subside some time later, the umpires were unable to restart the game due to large wet patches in the outfield, as a result of which the game was called off.
Here’s how the latest result affects the semi-final scenarios as far as Group B is concerned:
Are Australia through to the semi-finals?
Australia needed to avoid a defeat in their final group match against Afghanistan in order to advance to the semi-finals, and the washout confirmed their place in the knockouts along with India and New Zealand from Group A.
Whether the Aussies finish at the top of Group B or not will depend on the South Africa-England match that takes place in Karachi on Saturday.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsHow Afghanistan can still qualify
The South Africa-England match will also decide whether the spirited Afghan team reach the semi-finals of an ICC event for the second time in as many years or not. The Afghans finished with three points to their name with one win, one defeat and a No Result .
The Proteas, however, enjoy a considerable advantage over Hashmatullah Shahidi’s men in terms of Net Run Rate (NRR) – theirs (+2.140) being the best among all teams currently.
Afghanistan (-0.990) finished with an NRR in the negative and will need England to defeat South Africa by a huge margin for them to finish ahead of Temba Bavuma’s men on the table to qualify.