ICC Champions Trophy: Afghanistan’s Semi-Final Hopes End

ICC Champions Trophy: Afghanistan’s journey ends in the group stage, South Africa is the fourth team to reach the semi-finals

Afghanistan’s hopes of reaching the semi-finals of the ICC Champions Trophy are completely over. After the match between South Africa and England ended, the semi-final teams were decided. South Africa bowled out England for 179 runs in the last match of Group B played in Karachi, due to which Afghanistan was out of the race for the semi-finals. In this way, South Africa became the fourth team to reach the semi-finals.

The disappointing batting performance of England, the semifinalists who were decided even before the result, continued in the match against South Africa and the team could not perform impressively. England’s team, after winning the toss and batting first, was all out in 38.2 overs. This is the lowest total of this ICC Champions Trophy. With the end of the first innings, it was decided that Australia and South Africa reached the semifinals from Group B. Afghanistan’s match against Australia on Friday was inconclusive due to rain, due to which its hopes were pinned on the match against England. It was not easy for Afghanistan to reach the semifinals because South Africa could be eliminated only if England defeated it by a big margin. 

Afghanistan was hoping for a miracle

England being all out on such a low score meant that whatever the result of this match, South Africa reached the semi-finals and Afghanistan’s hopes were completely dashed as South Africa defeated England by seven wickets. Group B had Afghanistan, South Africa, Australia and England. Two matches of this group were affected by rain due to which the equations changed and the race for the semi-finals remained interesting till the end. 

Australia defeated England in its first match. After this, its second match against South Africa was washed out due to rain and now the match against Afghanistan could not be completed. Australia thus won one out of three matches in the group stage and secured a place in the semi-finals with four points. With the victory against England, South Africa reached the top and has five points. At the same time, Afghanistan finished its campaign at the third position. 

South Africa’s big defeat, with memories of the ODI World Cup 2023 fresh,

could have opened the doors for Afghanistan. If England had batted first and defeated South Africa by at least 207 runs in this match, Afghanistan could have progressed, but England’s team could not even score 200 runs in total, which completely ended Afghanistan’s hopes. India, New Zealand, South Africa and Australia made it to the semi-finals of the ICC Champions Trophy. These four teams also made it to the semi-finals of the ODI World Cup 2023. 

England’s poor batting

Earlier, England captain Jos Buttler won the toss and decided to bat first, but his start was bad and Marco Jansen gave him three blows. Big partnerships could not be made for England, which caused them the most loss. For England, experienced batsman Joe Root scored the highest 37 runs in 44 balls, while Jofra Archer scored 25, Ben Duckett 24, captain Jofra Archer 21, Harry Brook 19, Jamie Overton 11, Liam Livingstone 9, Phil Salt 8 and Adil Rashid scored 2 runs. At the same time, Saqib Mahmood remained unbeaten after scoring five runs. Apart from Jansen and Mulder, Keshav Maharaj got two wickets, while Lungi Ngidi and Kagiso Rabada got one wicket each.

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