LAHORE: Australia reached the Champions Trophy semifinals after its last group game against Afghanistan was abandoned because of rain and a wet outfield on Friday.

Australia, which achieved a record chase of 352 against England in the opening game, finished the group stage with four points after its last two games were washed out in Rawalpindi and Lahore.

Afghanistan has three points and is on the verge of an exit. To advance, it needs South Africa to lose by an improbable margin of more than 200 runs against already eliminated England in Saturday’s Group B game.

Afghanistan was bowled out for 273 on the final ball and Australia cruised to 109-1 in 12.5 overs when the rain returned. The outfield became too sodden to continue.

Travis Head’s 34-ball half-century had provided Australia a rollicking start against some scratchy Afghanistan fielding and poor fast bowling. Rashid Khan couldn’t hold onto a regulation catch when Head was on 6. Head cut loose and motored Australia to 90-1 in the batting powerplay.

Substitute fielder Nangeyalia Kharote dropped Matthew Short off Azmatullah Omarzai but was dismissed two balls later when Gulbadin Naib took a smart catch over his shoulder at mid-on while running backwards.

Fast bowling allrounder Omarzai, who grabbed his maiden five-wicket haul in Afghanistan’s stunning eight-run win over England at the same venue, was smacked for 43 off his five overs while Fazalhaq Farooqi also erred a lot in his lengths and went for 32 off his three overs.