Karachi: South Africa won the thrown and chose to first beat against Afghanistan in the third Champions Trophy 2025 match at the National Bank Cricket Stadium in Karachi on Friday.
At the end of the 15th over, South Africa stood firmly against Afghanistan on the field with 83 races.
Meanwhile, it was an exciting start for the men in Blue when Mohammad Nabi knocked Tony de Zorzi (11) out of the field using Azmatullah Omarzai’s incredible catch.
Earlier, after winning the cast, South Africa -captain Temba Bavuma had expressed confidence and said his team “will try to score well”. Meanwhile, Afghanistan -captain Hashmatullah Shahidi said if they had gone the other way, his team would have chosen to beat.
“We’ll be happy if we start well,” he said, adding, “We’ve played good cricket against South Africa before.”
Earlier during a press conference before battle, Bavuma highlighted the challenges that Afghanistan’s spin-heavy attacked, emphasizing the importance of adapting to the conditions in Karachi.
Bavuma had noticed that the surfaces of Karachi have been dough -friendly, with teams that have consistently sent scores around 300 in recent matches. However, he emphasized the need for his bowling unit to remain disciplined and precise to counter the highly scored trend.
“Our challenge as a bowling unit is to be one of the more disciplined and precise bowling units,” he said.
“From a batting point of view, the results of the result is a big thing. The guys come in and make sure they go big so we can challenge these 330-350 types of scores.”
On the other hand, Shahidi highlighted his team’s success over the years and claimed they are ready for the eight-team tournament and rejected the notion of being under pressure while turning to South Africa that boasts.
“A lot has changed since 2019, and recently we beat them 2-1 in Sharjah. So we have that confidence with us and we are not under any pressure, because right now we focus on what we can do in this tournament , “Shahidi said.
“I think our team is ready for this tournament and we focus only 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, Yellowbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Noor Ahmad.
South Africa: Ryan Rickelton (W), Tony de Zorzi, Temba Bavuma (C), Rassie van der Dersen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi.
