Champions Trophy 2025: What happens if Afghanistan-Australia match ends in a washout? Scenarios explained

Afghanistan will be aiming to keep their party going when they face Australia in their final Champions Trophy Group B clash in Lahore on Friday. And given how they performed against England recently, Hashmatullah Shahidi’s men will be backing themselves to emerge victorious against the reigning ODI world champions, who happen to be the joint-most successful team in the tournament’s history with two titles.

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The Afghans had knocked England out of the Champions Trophy with a thrilling eight-run victory at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium on Wednesday. Ibrahim Zadran struck a magnificent 177 to help the Afghans recover from 37/3 and post a challenging 325/7 on the board.

Azmatullah Omarzai would then star with the ball, collecting 5/58 as England were bundled out for 317 in reply, with Joe Root’s fighting 120 going in vain.

Australia too had beaten the Englishmen earlier in the tournament as the Leeds-born Josh Inglis struck a match-winning century against the country of his birth to chase down an imposing target of 352 with five wickets and nearly three overs to spare.

The Steve Smith-led side currently are unbeaten heading into Friday’s clash against Afghanistan, with their match against South Africa in Rawalpindi on Tuesday getting washed out without a ball bowled.

Before the 10th match of the tournament gets underway, we take a look at the various possible results and how they will impact the race to the semi-finals as far as Group B is concerned:

If Afghanistan win

Afghanistan currently have two points on the board after their victory over England, with their Net Run Rate still in the negative (-0.990). The only realistic way for them to feature in the semi-finals of an ICC event for the second time in as many years is to defeat Australia on Friday.

If they succeed in doing that, then Australia will be left praying for an English victory over South Africa – and a massive one at that – on Saturday. That will leave Australia and South Africa level on three points with NRR becoming the deciding factor.

If Australia win

Then Australia are through to the semi-finals along with South Africa, and Afghanistan join England in bidding the Champions Trophy an early goodbye.

Whether Australia finish on top of Group B and face the runner-up in Group A will depend on the result of the South Africa-England game in Karachi on Saturday, especially since the Proteas currently have the best NRR (+2.140) among all teams in the competiton.

If the match ends in a washout

Australia still qualify for the semi-finals as they will finish with four points while Afghanistan will go level with South Africa on three points.

In such a scenario, the Afghans will be praying for England to thrash the Proteas by a lopsided margin at Karachi’s National Stadium given their NRR is a long way off from that of the Temba Bavuma-led side.