Afghanistan vs South Africa, 3rd Match, Group B at Karachi, Champions Trophy, Feb 21, 2025 – Live Cricket Score

9.50pm: Right, that’s a wrap from game three of the Champions Trophy. The live blog is up to date and Asish’s report will be in the slot soon. We’ll be back to go again in the morning, firing up the Ashes phoney war as England and Australia go head to head in Lahore. Make sure to join us for that. For now, from myself and Ekanth, Vairavan and the scorers, it’s goodnight and good luck. See ya!

9.37pm: Time to hear from the captains, starting with Hashmatullah Shahidi: “I think the batting was not good enough today. The pitch was helping them in the second innings. But we did well in the bowling but not so good in the first 20 overs [batting]. The toss was important, it was not a typical Karachi pitch. Their bowlers bowled well [too]. My expectations was to play well, we have achieved a lot coming to this tournament. We have the ability to fight but we didn’ tplay the way we wanted. We have two games so we will forget what happened and look forward. [Rahmat] He played really well in tough times, we will take that as a positive. We will move forward and inshallah play quality cricket in the next two games.”

South Africa’s Temba Bavuma: “Clinical performance. We got the rub of the green wth the toss but it was a brave decision to bat first not knowing how it would play. We took care of that, got a competitive score and then were clinicial with the ball. All in all close to our best peformance. [Pitch?] The wicket looked different. Closer to a wicket back home. The batters do their assessment and then do what needs to be done. Lot of crack, a bit of variable bounce but assessing a good score was tricky/ [Influence bowling plans] Definitely, the guys at the back end felt that it was tough [to score] in a good area or shorter. Our thinking was to hit the pitch hard and see what happens. We’ll enjoy the win but then start gearing up for what we need to do against Australia.”

9.26pm: Victory by a margin of 107 runs for South Africa, an emphatic way to end their losing run in ODIs. Time for handshakes, the debriefs will come later. Ryan Rickelton was the main man for South Africa, extending his purple run of form into the 50-over format with a maiden hundred. Afghanistan lose regular wickets and never looked like pulling off what would have been a record chase. Rahmat Shah was the lone banner man, but even he fell short of a milestone as South Africa’s quicks shared eight wickets between them

Ryan Rickelton is Player of the Match: “Bit of a different one, I was quite nervous coming in. My first proper ICC event. To contribute to the team and set us up for a win is something I’m very chuffed with. We thought it would be tacky up front but it played all right. Bounce was a bit inconsistent but you adjust accordingly. Thought we could have pushed a bit harder but Aiden [Markram] played agreat knock at the back there to get a competitive total. [Run out] Disappointed to get out, especially in that manner. Said I thought Rash threw it at my head. But the guys that came in after me pulled the trigger. [Opening and keeping] Something I’ve done since young, something I take pride in. Not the best night with the gloves but I learn from my mistakes.”

Nabi strikes first ball to get rid of de Zorzi

Nabi comes in; Nabi strikes

And, almost on cue Mohammad Nabi was brought into the attack and it took him all of one ball to indeed show his magic. It was almost a nothing delivery. Slightly short of a length on off just sitting up to be hit. De Zorzi could have whacked this anywhere, instead, he just swats this meekly to mid-on. Nabi can barely believe his luck and he pulls out a fist pump and flashes a wide smile. Just the start Afghanistan would have hoped for.

In comes captain Temba Bavuma.

South Africa: 31 for 1 after seven overs

Three fours; lots of dot balls

Good, tight lines from both Fazalhaq Farooqi and Azmatullah Omarzai. There is some swing in the air and off the surface as well. Ryan Rickelton begins with a crisp four to the left of mid-off but nothing much apart from that. Omarzai got the ball to move away big time from Rickelton while Farooqi hooped the ball sharply into both left-handers. Tony de Zorzi finally gets a couple of boundaries away against Omarzai, but run-scoring hasn’t been easy in the first four overs.

Both bowlers are working up good speeds, in the mid to high 130s. Now for that first wicket.

No Klaasen and Stubbs as South Africa bat

Toss time. Temba Bavuma, the South Africa captain, has won the toss and South Africa will bat. The pitch has an Australian feel to it, says Rameez Raja and that’s aided in Bavuma’s decision. But the big thing from the South Africa XI is that there is no Heinrich Klaasen or Tristan Stubbs for the first game.

Wowza! That is a big miss. Firdose informs that Heinrich Klaasen has been ruled out of today’s match as a precautionary measure due to a left elbow soft tissue injury.

Temba Bavuma: Wickets look different from how they generally do in Pakistan. Not sure how it’ll react. We have to assess the wicket and hope to get a good score on the board. We have a lot of confidence in our bowling, consistency has been our strength. Just one spinner today, Shamsi. Tricky to say what a good score.

Hashmatullah Shahidi: If we’d have won the toss, we’d have batted too. Our focus is on how to start well. We played some quality cricket against SA in Sharjah. We have quality spinners, they’ll be important. I will be happy if we start well, get early wickets, and restrict them going into the middle overs.

Playing XIs

Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), Azmatullah Omarzai, Gulbadin Naib, Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Noor Ahmad

South Africa: Ryan Rickelton (wk), Tony de Zorzi, Temba Bavuma (capt), Rassie van der Dussen, Aiden Markram, David Miller, Wiaan Mulder, Marco Jansen, Keshav Maharaj, Kagiso Rabada, Lungi Ngidi

Pitch report: It’s partly cloudy. The wind is picking up and dropping down. The long boundary is 79 down the ground, 62 and 67 square. Dale Steyn says the pitch is hard, and has grass but has cracks. They are wide but the pitch is hard enough to ensure that it won’t widen through the day. If the ball lands on the grass, bowlers will likely get sideways movement. Still might be good to bat on. As the game gets on, there might be variable bounce.