Australia Vs Afghanistan Match Abandoned Due To Rain
On February thirty-first, twenty twenty-eight, cricket fans gathered at Gaddafi Stadium, Lahore, anticipating a spectacular battle between Afghanistan and Australia in the ICC Champions Trophy. This Group B clash meant a lot-more like a semi-final place on the line-in actuality-a knock-out stage. Afghanistan, riding the vibes of a sensational victory over England in the previous match, would be up against an Australian team that had already thrown gauntlets against the same opponent by chasing down 352. Stakes were at an all-time high, but as the day unfolded, nature had other plans.
Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi elected to bat first, indicating that they wanted to set a challenging target after winning the toss. The chase got off to the shaky start that the team and the spectators were used to with opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz getting a duck in the very first over off a deadly yorker by Spencer Johnson. But Sediqullah Atal and Azmatullah Omarzai boosted the team, as needed, to fight back. The innings were held together by Atal’s gritty eighty-five, with effectiveness against a disciplined Australian attack, and Omarzai’s exuberant sixty-seven gave momentum to the middle order. Their combined effort saw Afghanistan set up a respectable target of two hundred seventy-three all out in fifty overs.
Ben Dwarshuis was the pick of the Australian bowlers with three for forty-seven and Johnson and Adam Zampa took two wickets apiece. Despite some sloppy fielding and given away 25 extras, Australia seemed going reasonably relaxed with the tail end of Afghanistan. It all started with Australia’s openers, Travis Head and Matthew Short. The latter started aggressive against the Afghan bowlers, with Head in particularly breathtaking form, scoring a blazing fifty off just 34 balls through an unmatchable mixture of power and precision.
Short added a rather brisk 20 before being dismissed by Omarzai, with Australia converting to 44 for 1. Steve Smith joined Head at the crease, and the scoreboard read 109 for 1 in just 12.5 overs. The required run rate was perfectly within reach by then, and Australia seemed set to cruise into the semifinals comfortably. But shortly afterwards, the heavens opened up.
In the meantime, rain started pouring down in Lahore, and the match was stopped, with the players taken off the field. Ground staff tried to lay coverings on the rain-soaked pitch, but the rain had started drizzling, and with soon-after announcement that the outfield had waterlogged, hopes of resumption were dashed. The time for the cut-off point for a 20-over game neared quickly: that is, 10:11 PM local time. But conditions still remained unfavourable, and after a lengthy delay during inspection at 9:15 PM, the umpires finally called off the match, declaring it “no result”.
The crowd, which had braved the conditions awaiting the drama, trickled out as the disappointment sank in. The washout turned out to be highly beneficial to Australia. Having won a game, with a no-result on South Africa, they now also shared an additional point that took them to the semifinals with four points from three games. The aggressive start that Head had given always got them going; their quest continues even if it remained unfinished.
Afghanistan, however, was hanging by a thread. With three points, they mathematically stayed alive, but a huge-series of events needed to unfold in their favor for them to progress: England must do something no one hoped for, defeat South Africa by a gigantic margin on March 1, in their last group game. They were under the mountain of odds to do so: net run rate was at -0.99; South Africa had +2.140.
The unfinished match demonstrated the rise of the Afghans and the determination of the Australians. Tension subsequently ensued from off-the-field pressures of Australia refusing to play bilateral series against Afghanistan, which only heightened the intrigue of it all. Yet on this rain-soaked evening, it was the unpredictability of the sport that ruled how every cricket aficionado would be wondering what could have happened.
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