Afghanistan and Australia are currently playing the 10th match of the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 on Friday, February 28, at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi won the toss and chose to bat first in the contest.
Left-arm pacer Spencer Johnson gave an early breakthrough to Australia by cleaning up star Afghanistan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz for a five-ball duck in the first over with a magnificent inswinging yorker. Sediqullah Atal then stabilized the innings for the Asian team by building partnerships of 67 (76) and 68 (78) with Ibrahim Zadran (22) and Hashmatullah Shahidi (20), respectively.
After playing a brilliant knock of 85 (95), Sediqullah Atal departed in the 32nd over, 15 runs short of a well-deserved century. All-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai (67) took responsibility after his dismissal and played a counter-attacking inning to take Afghanistan to a respectable total of 273 before they got all out in 50 overs. Ben Dwarshuis (3/47), Spencer Johnson (2/49), and Adam Zampa (2/48) performed well for Australia with the ball.
Fans enjoyed the first innings of the Champions Trophy match. They expressed their reactions by sharing hilarious memes on X (formerly Twitter) and Instagram.
One of the memes read:
"There Is No Bigger Statpadder Than Hashmatullah Shahidi. He Is Babar Azam Ultra Pro Max."
"We are happy with that score"- Australia spinner Adam Zampa after restricting Afghanistan to 273 in 2025 Champions Trophy clash
During the mid-innings break, Australian leg-spinner Adam Zampa reflected on the first innings and his bowling performance, saying: (via Cricbuzz):
"Mixed bag today, was struggling to find my lengths but was able to create a couple of opportunities which were taken. Bowled a couple of overs after the powerplay, it held on a bit back then but when the ball got older, it came on better onto the bat."
He continued:
"These guys love bowling stump-to-stump, especially Rash (Rashid Khan), we need to play straight. We are happy with that score, they put us under pressure before in the 2023 ODI WC and 2024 T20 World Cup, tonight we need to be cautious."
Do you think Afghanistan can defend the target and earn their semi-final spot in the 2025 Champions Trophy? Let us know in the comments section.
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