PCB received a lot of flak for poor infrastructure and drainage facilities at the Gaddafi Stadium.
Rain arrived during Australia's innings and continued for about 30 minutes. However, it proved to be a lot for the ground's poor drainage system as the match was forced to be called off despite a wait of more than one hour.
The groundstaff made desperate attempts to dry out the ground. They even used giant mopers to flush out the water from the covers, but failed to keep the umpires hopeful about the safe resumption of play.
In the process, one of the groundstaff slipped and fell on the ground. The visuals were aired by the broadcasters JioHotstar, where former India cricketer Abhimanyu Mukund said, "I have seen this sport. I think it's curling."
"Along with curling, what we are also seeing is falling," quipped former India batter Sanjay Manjrekar.
The cameras then panned to the Australian dressing room, where the players and the support staff looked perplexed by the proceedings on the ground.
All the efforts went in vain as the umpires decided that the conditions were not suitable for play to resume.
After the match was called off, PCB received a lot of flak on social media for poor infrastructure and drainage facilities at the Gaddafi Stadium.
Australia made it to the semifinals of the Champions Trophy 2025 despite their Group B match being abandoned due to rain. On the other hand, Afghanistan just have an outside chance. They will need England to beat South Africa by a huge margin to qualify for the semis.
Before the rain arrived, Travis Head had scored a quickfire fifty (59* off 40) as Australia reached 109/1 in 12.5 overs in their chase of 274. Earlier, Afghanistan posted 273/10 in their allotted 50 overs. Sediqullah Atal was the top scorer with 85 while Azmatullah Omarzai contributed 67 off 63 balls.