Rain washes out Proteas vs Australia Champions Trophy match

The Champions Trophy clash between Australia and South Africa was abandoned without a ball being bowled because of rain at the Rawalpindi Stadium on Tuesday.

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Rain began to fall from early morning and despite being relenting into light drizzle the weather continued to worsen with bad light, delaying the toss scheduled for 13:30 local time.

With rain not stopping and the ground staff unable to remove pools of water from covers protecting the playing surface, umpires took the decision to abandon the Group B match.

Handful of spectators

A handful of spectators with South African and Australian flags waited anxiously for the start of the match but had to leave without watching any action.

With one point each from this match, Australia and South Africa are both well placed for the semi-finals, having both won their opening fixtures in the tournament.

South Africa, who beat Afghanistan in their first match by 107 runs, are top of the table with three points and a net run-rate of 2.14.

Australia are second on the same number of points and a net run-rate of 0.475.

England face Afghanistan in Lahore on Wednesday in a must-win match for both teams after they lost their opening games.

Australia captain Steve Smith said the rain-out at least left his team knowing that a victory over Afghanistan on Friday would secure their place in the semi-finals.

“I did look at the Apple weather and it showed rain for the next few days but didn’t expect it to be a wash-out, you can’t do much about it,” said Smith.

“The equation is pretty simple now, on to the next one against Afghanistan and if we win we are locked into top four.”

‘Disappointing’

South African skipper Temba Bavuma said the abandonment was disappointing for all involved.

“Yeah, it’s frustrating, we wanted to have some cricket and so did the fans, also wanting to watch two sides in confidence,” said Bavuma, adding that batter Heinrich Klaasen had fully recovered from a sore elbow.

“Klaasen is fit and adds value to our team. We will watch England play Afghanistan (in Lahore on Wednesday) to have an idea against them in our last match (in Karachi on Saturday).”

India and New Zealand qualified for the semi-finals from Group A on Monday as title-holders Pakistan and Bangladesh crashed out of the tournament.

Will the Proteas go on to lift the Champions Trophy trophy?

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