Australia vs Afghanistan

 Australia vs Afghanistan Live Score, ICC Champions Trophy 2025: Afghanistan's victory over England means this match against Australia essentially becomes a straight shootout match to see which team progresses to the semifinals.

Australia vs Afghanistan Live Score,

 ICC Champions Trophy 2025: It took some time to get going, but the ICC Champions Trophy is finally beginning to heat up on its return after 8 years. Although nobody enjoys a washout, Australia’s abandoned match against South Africa set up an interesting situation in Group B. Afghanistan’s historic win over England in the subsequent match means that today’s game becomes a very straightforward equation: the winner progresses. The loser is almost certainly out.

So the ask from these two teams is very simple, as far as producing a result goes. There will be a win-at-all-costs mentality, which is embodied so fiercely by this group of Australians, even if they are a little threadbare in their bowling department due to injuries. They would have loved to get time in the middle against South Africa, a world-class unit that could have pushed them further than England did, but the Aussies do have a habit of coming good when it’s required the most. There is no question they will be up for the fight.

Meanwhile, Afghanistan will enter this match as the underdogs, but never let that tag short-sell the quality of cricket they are capable of playing, and the threat they possess from over 1 through to 100. They enter after their breathtaking final-over victory over England, a game that will go down in the history books for Afghanistan cricket, as phenomenal performances with both bat and ball guided them to a win. In their debut Champions Trophy campaign, to come up with that kind of performance in a game that would knock them out if they lost speaks to the threat that this team can produce.

While Ibrahim Zadran played the innings of the tournament so far, scoring 177 and almost singlehandedly carrying Afghanistan’s batting on his back, this team is very much a unit whose strength lies in their bowling attack. Afghanistan can ensure they are always competitive with variety, ability, and a sense of the game that is improving constantly. They will want to exorcise the ghosts of their loss to Australia at the ODI World Cup, where Glenn Maxwell famously put them to the sword to rescue a win despite battling with cramps and injury.

Afghanistan know they can beat Australia at these big tournaments based on that match: they should have pulled off the win, but fell short to a spectacular innings, and will be aware that they didn’t bowl close to well enough, and let the match slip when they shouldn’t have. Don’t expect the same mistake again.

Australia, on the other hand, have the pressure of being the favourites, and although they scripted another famous chase thanks to Josh Inglis and Alex Carey against England, they will be aware that they are up against a team that won’t be as toothless as that. The batting is fairly full-strength, and has plenty of firepower of their own, but their bowling is the concern area. They should have enough to overcome Afghanistan, but are a little closer-matched in terms of strengths and weaknesses than they would like to be.

It’s a difficult match to call with any conviction, because Afghanistan have already shown the waves they can cause, and Australia are also still slightly rusty. In whatever case, this being a do-or-die sort of encounter means punches won’t be pulled. Expect plenty of drama, and plenty of good cricket.