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South Africa (315/6) defeat Afghanistan (208) comprehensively by 107 runs to start their ICC Champions Trophy 2025 campaign on a high

Which team will win the Group B clash in the ICC Champions Trophy 2025?

  • Total voters
    17
Pak and Afghan are 2 sides of the same coin in cricket. Pak team is average, can lose to minnows but beat big teams on its day but overall average.

Afghan team is a below average team that can compete toe to toe with average teams- Pak, Wi. Bangla, SL, on rare occasions upset big teams but can also lose to minnows at times.

19-20 ka faraq hai.
 
sweep_shot said:
Flat pitches don't suit Afghanistan. They need spicy pitches to dominate.

Their batting is mostly a one man show (Gurbaz).
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Chasing doesn't suit South Africa either. Doesn't matter what type of pitch it is. Their record while chasing in recent years is embarrassing
 
Bavuma is such a rubbish captain. Why would you not being on Rabada to clean up the tail instead of giving the ball to two of your worst bowlers from tonight
 
So far very boring tournament . Is this going to be worst ever champion trophy due to no close games?

Time for ICC to change the format of champion trophy . From next time champion trophy should be in T20 format

No one going to waste 8 hour just for these boring one-sided affairs.

These types of boring matches is the reason why ODI cricket is dying
:kp
 
Devadwal said:
So far very boring tournament . Is this going to be worst ever champion trophy due to no close games?

Time for ICC to change the format of champion trophy . From next time champion trophy should be in T20 format

No one going to waste 8 hour just for these boring one-sided affairs.

These types of boring matches is the reason why ODI cricket is dying
:kp
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Terrible. When CT was formed teams were more or less equally good. Gulf has widened. BD and Afghanistan have no business playing this. I say just 6 teams can compete with each other.
 
Devadwal said:
So far very boring tournament . Is this going to be worst ever champion trophy due to no close games?

Time for ICC to change the format of champion trophy . From next time champion trophy should be in T20 format

No one going to waste 8 hour just for these boring one-sided affairs.

These types of boring matches is the reason why ODI cricket is dying
:kp
Click to expand...
Hey hey, yesterday BD vs IND match wasnt all that bad in the end. If Jaker had caught that, things could've gotten really dicey for you guys🤷‍♂️
 
BDfanforever said:
Hey hey, yesterday BD vs IND match wasnt all that bad in the end. If Jaker had caught that, things could've gotten really dicey for you guys🤷‍♂️
Click to expand...
It was one sided match. India was always ahead. If Rohit had taken catch than bangladesh would have been all out under 100 .india dropped 2 catches and a missed stumping.

:kp
 
JaDed said:
ODI will always the problem now as T20 s can go to last over but not ODIs.. Reels vs youtube
Click to expand...

People are just accustomed to T20's now. The longer the formats the greatest the difference in quality will be exposed.

Test matches don't go until the 15th session either.
 
Devadwal said:
It was one sided match. India was always ahead. If Rohit had taken catch than bangladesh would have been all out under 100 .india dropped 2 catches and a missed stumping.

:kp
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yeah however, Rohit catch wasnt all that easy, that was spinning away very quickly. I also thought Axar action was very dodgy during that over 1740157125426.png
 

Rabada nails 3-fer as SA register emphatic win over Champions Trophy debutants AFG​


South Africa pace spearhead Kagiso Rabada snapped three wickets as the Proteas claimed a 107-run win over Afghanistan to kickstart their Champions Trophy 2025 campaign in Group B.

Having removed Ibrahim Zadran in the powerplay with a short delivery, Rabada banged in a back-of-a-length ball down the leg side to get the better of Azmatullah Omarzai and finally closed the game with Gulbadin Naib's wicket.

Also among the wickets for South Africa were Lungi Ngidi and Wiaan Mulder, who claimed a brace each, while Marco Jansen and Keshav Maharaj also finished on the wicekts tally.

The Proteas furthermore ascertained control of their defence of 316 with excellent fielding display as Marco Jansen produced a top-notch direct hit to remove Rahmat Shah. Skipper Temba Bavuma then latched onto a good catch at mid on off Mulder's bowling.

Meanwhile for Afghanistan, Rahmat Shah played a lone ranger, amassing 90 off 92 deliveries to hold the fort at one end as wickets tumbling at the other.

The early wickets put the Proteas on firmer footing after opener Ryan Rickelton had forged a maiden ODI hundred in their Group B Champions Trophy opener. The 28-year-old piled on 103 runs off 106 deliveries, a knock composed of seven fours and one maximum to lead the Proteas charge enroute to 315/6.

Producing a classy drive down the ground to get off the mark, Rickelton stamped his authority against the Afghan bowlers.

After South Africa lost Tony de Zorzi in the powerplay, Rickelton combined alongside Proteas skipper Temba Bavuma, who scored 56 off 78 deliveries, to add 129 runs for the second wicket.

Bavuma's stay in the middle was cut short by Mohammad Nabi, who returned back into the attack to deliver a much-needed breakthrough to Afghanistan.

Rickelton was then dismissed by Rashid Khan, who produced a stellar run-out off his own bowling to get rid of the Proteas centurion.

The Proteas were given additional push in the closing overs as Aiden Markram shifted gears, upping the ante to score a quickfire fifty.

Also among the runs for South Africa, who won the toss and opted to bat first, was Rassie van der Dussen, who lived up to his stellar reputation in the ODI format and compiled a 46-ball-52 before falling to Noor Ahmed.

For Afghanistan, Mohammad Nabi finished with a brace. Breaking Rickelton's stand with Bavuma, Nabi also snapped the wicket of Tony de Zorzi earlier in the powerplay - a dismissal off his first delivery - to produce an opening breakthrough for Afghanistan, who are making their Champions Trophy debut in Karachi.

www.icc-cricket.com

Live: Rabada nails 3-fer as SA register emphatic win over Champions Trophy debutants AFG

The first Group B fixture at the ICC Champions Trophy 2025 sees the Hashmatullah Shahidi-led side take on South Africa in Karachi.
www.icc-cricket.com www.icc-cricket.com
 
Afghanistan has been overrated. They are still a mediocre team. Some fans glorify them unnecessarily above Bangladesh. But they are practically a mediocre team. Once again it was proved today
 
Congratulations to South Africa. Job well done.

Both are my favorite teams. So, I simply enjoyed the game without supporting any team outright.
 
Jonathan Trott- Afghanistan post-match press conference, 21 Feb '25

[Reporter:]

Not an ideal start to the Champions Trophy, what went wrong today?

[Jonathan Trott:]

I think we let them get a few too many – we didn’t get early wickets unfortunately. They played really well, combination of perhaps – not being on it with the ball as much as we’d like to have been – but I also think they played really well. I think Rickleton's in really good form and then Bavuma played nice as well. They set the game up and perhaps got a few too many on that wicket. I think we should have limited them a little bit more if we'd bowled a bit better, that's all. And then chasing, We obviously didn't have a good start. And to chase down a total like that, you sort of need a good solid platform. I think they were 104 after 20, but they were one down. We'd lost quite a few more wickets at that point so to set up and chase and sort of give you the platform to chase that - so from start to finish we need to be better

[Reporter:]

Of course, a lot of support for Afghanistan fans here and in a non-Pakistan match how players were enjoying this atmosphere? And also, two coming games against Australia and England in Lahore and of course, Afghanistan known to produce some good results and spin wickets in Asia. So, looking forward to those two matches after this early setback.

[Jonathan Trott:]

Yeah, obviously support is great. I think the guys enjoy support wherever they go, certainly in the UAE or here. So hopefully we'll get more of that in Lahore and it'll spur the guys on. And yeah, I think obviously it's pretty clear what we need to do now. We know we didn't play well enough today. We know we've got to pull our socks up and play a lot better against England on the 26th and against Australia on the 28th.

[Reporter:]

Between over number 11 to 40 Afghanistan used to build their inning quite well but today they just scored 161 runs and lost 6 wickets. So, don't you really think that Afghanistan needs some stability in the middle overs which they did in the World Cup 2023? So, they need that same momentum today because the wicket was not offering too much for the bowlers as well. But they are using the short ball again Afghanistan. So how do you summarize these sort of things?

[Jonathan Trott:]

I think the openers need to set up the game as well with the top three or four batters and I think within their dismissals there were a few soft dismissals. I think a lot of dot balls early on. I think the pitch sort of – this evening sort of aided the South African bowlers and I think they bowled really well and made it quite hard work for us. But there were a lot of soft dismissals there for me and something I'll be chatting to the batters about and how to go about it a little bit better perhaps for the rest of the tournament?

[Reporter:]

Going forward it's back-to-back games any particular area that you would like to address?

[Jonathan Trott:]

All three - bowling batting and fielding.

I think we could do better with the new ball. Take wickets. We need to take wickets in the power play. Make it easier for our spinners coming on and bowling at newer batters, or batters who aren't set coming out of the power play.

Fielding, there's a few mis fields. And we need to be a little bit sharper in certain areas. And then today, the batting, as I said already, a few soft dismissals under pressure and things we need to get better and do better on the 26th.

[Reporter:]

This was probably the first time Afghanistan were playing in Karachi - so you guys have played all around the world in Sharjah and India - but like how was it playing over here? A great crowd turned up and it wasn't a Pakistan match, so how are the players feeling and they're playing here?

[Jonathan Trott:]

Really good - as I said, and I've been asked the question already is that they enjoy any support whether in Sharjah or whether in Abu Dhabi. So, to get the sort of home crowd advantage like we did tonight is awesome. And we certainly hope that that'll be the case in Lahore for both our games.

[Reporter:]

Do you think Afghanistan have some issues in middle order which need to be solved?

[Jonathan Trott:]

Well, yeah, I think any time you get bowled out for just over 200, chasing 300, you're going to ask the middle order, especially when one player gets 90, batting at number four. You sometimes look around, and if somebody had batted with him and been able to build a partnership like we've spoken about, we could have got ourselves close to the title today. So that's the most disappointing thing is one person showed us exactly how it could be done and get us close, if there had just been a few guys who had a similar day to him. So, yeah, it's everyone's responsibility.

[Reporter:]

Nowadays we see a lot of players play franchise cricket together and then they play against each other. So, what do you say? Is this thing helpful, players knowing each other or knowing their strengths and weaknesses? Or you think that this franchise thing has just made things more difficult for teams playing against each other?

[Jonathan Trott:]

I'm not quite sure whether it's a pro or a con really, but one thing I do think is that there's a lot of - it's quite difficult to get that rivalry going when last week some players were playing in the same team together, or this week they're playing against each other. So, it makes it a little bit confusing for some players. But for me, we've got to make sure that when we play against England on the 26th, it's 11 versus 11. And we're going out there to beat them. Whereas today, a lot of these players have played together in franchises in the SA20. It's always tricky where the line is between rivalry or friendship on and off the field. But I think the way we play the game is the right way and I don't think we've ever really got that wrong side of how I think it should be.
 
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