Karachi: South Africa won the raffle and chose to hit first against Afghanistan in the third game of Champions Trophy 2025 at the Cricket Stadium of the National Bank in Karachi on Friday.
At the end of 15, South Africa remained firm against Afghanistan in the field with 83 races.
Meanwhile, it was an exciting beginning for the men of blue when Mohammad Nabi took Tony from Zorzi (11) outside the field with the help of the incredible capture of Azmatullah Omarzai.
Previously, after winning the raffle, the captain of South Africa, Temba Bavuma, had expressed his confidence and said his team “will try to score well.” Meanwhile, the captain of Afghanistan, hashmatullah Shahidi, said that if they had gone the other way, his team would have opted to hit.
“We will be happy if we start well,” he said, added: “We have played a good Crick against South Africa before.”
Previously, during a press conference prior to the party, Bavuma highlighted the challenges raised by the rotating attack of Afghanistan and emphasized the importance of adapting to the conditions in Karachi.
Bavuma had noticed that the surfaces in Karachi have been friendly to the batter, and the teams constantly publish scores of around 300 in recent matches. However, he emphasized the need for his bowling unit to remain disciplined and precise to counteract the high punctuation trend.
“Our challenge as a bowling unit is to be one of the most disciplined and precise bowling units,” he said.
“From a batting point of view, the marker pressure is a great thing. The boys enter, making sure they are great so that we can challenge for that type of scores 330-350.”
On the other hand, Shahidi highlighted the success of his team over the years and said they are ready for the tournament of eight teams, dismissing the notion of being under pressure while facing South Africa, which has a slight advantage in the record from head to head.
“Much has changed since 2019 and recently, we defeated them 2-1 in Sharjah. So, we have that confidence with us and we are not under pressure because at this time, we are focusing on what we can do in this tournament,” Shahidi said.
“I think our team is ready for this tournament and we are only focusing on our team, so there is no pressure on us,” he added.
Playing Xis
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (W), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (C), Azmatullah Omarzai, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Noor Ahmad.
South Africa: Ryan Rickelton (W), Tony de Zorzi, Temba Bavuma (C), Rassie Van Der Dussen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi.
