Cricket betting tips: Australia vs South Africa, Afghanistan vs England

The fate of the four teams in Group B of the 2025 ICC Champions Trophy will be a lot clearer by Wednesday evening following games in Rawalpindi and Lahore.

On Tuesday, it’s Australia against South Africa at the Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium as both sides aim to make it two wins from two games and go a long way to booking a place in the tournament's semi-finals next week.

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Then 24 hours later, Afghanistan and England, both beaten in their opening fixtures, meet for only the seventh time in history and 16 months after Afghanistan secured their first victory over England in any format. A defeat for either side will make progression to the last four an extremely tough task!

Australia vs South Africa preview

A key match-up in this clash will be between Australia’s keeper-batter Josh Inglis and South Africa’s number one pace bowler Kagiso Rabada. Both were key for their teams in their first games, Inglis picking up the player of the match award with 120 not out from 86 balls while Rabada took 3/36 from 8.3 overs.

But this will not be the first time these two individuals have locked horns in an ODI and it is the South African who has had the upper hand, dismissing the 29-year-old Leeds-born right-hander three times from only 19 deliveries!

The pace bowler has also been a key cog in South Africa’s recent dominance over Australia in this format, playing in 13 of their 15 wins across the last 19 head-to-heads.

It was the Australians who came out on top in the last ODI between the sides though, emerging with a three-wicket win in the 2023 Cricket World Cup semi-finals. 

And after chasing down a target of 352 against England on Saturday, confidence will be high for the reigning 50-over world champions who ended a run of four successive ODI defeats in the game.

Cricket watchers have long been taught to ‘never write off Australia’ and this remains the case after they proved that they can still beat the top teams without their top batters.

Travis Head and Steve Smith, contributing, not to mention lacking their ‘big three’ quick bowlers.

FIRST’s top tip for Australia vs South Africa

Kagiso Rabada to be South Africa’s top bowler - 187/100 with Highbet

After making his ODI debut in 2015, Rabada has taken 165 wickets from 102 innings with his dismissals coming every 32.3 deliveries. But against Australia, that strike rate comes down to 25.6 with 30 wickets from 15 games.

If we zoom in a little closer, it is clear that the 29-year-old pace bowler’s returns are getting better in this fixture. Picking up 3+ dismissals in five of the last eight head-to-heads and failing to go wicketless in any of those games.

Afghanistan vs England preview

Due to female participation in sports being effectively banned in Afghanistan, this fixture against England has come under plenty of political scrutiny over recent months. 

But talk of the game not going ahead has long since disappeared and both teams need to win to give their chances of a semi-final berth a major boost.

With Australia, South Africa and England all coming into this Champions Trophy in poor ODI form, hopes were high within the Afghanistan camp that they could potentially finish top of Group B after they had won eight of their previous 11 games in the format.

But that confidence proved ill-founded in Friday’s defeat to South Africa with Afghanistan taking only one wicket from the first 28 overs, something which they were unable to recover from, on their way to a 107-run loss in Karachi.

That margin of defeat would have been even greater had it not been for Rahmat Shah’s 90 runs from 92 balls, particularly impressive when you see that no other batter in his side scored more than 18!

Ben Duckett will be able to sympathise with Shah as he hit England’s fifth-highest individual score in an ODI of 165 runs from 143 balls but also ended up on the losing side in Saturday’s game against Australia.

It’s now eight white-ball defeats out of nine games in 2025 for England and another loss would not only see them move very close to the departure gates from this tournament but would also pile the pressure on captain Jos Buttler.

FIRST’s top tip for Afghanistan vs England

Rahmat Shah to be Afghanistan’s top batter - 4/1 with Highbet

Afghanistan’s 31-year-old batting all-rounder is in fine form for his country with scores of 234, 139 and 90 from his last four international innings.

Looking at his returns during the 2023 Cricket World Cup, the last 50-over global tournament. His performance with the bat against South Africa should come as no surprise as he hit three successive half-centuries during that competition.

Extra tips

Ben Duckett to be player of the match (Afghanistan vs England) - 7/1 with Highbet

The form of England’s left-handed opener is no secret but an average of 67.20, which includes six scores of 50+, from his last 10 innings is exceptional!

Eight of those innings have returned strike rates of 100.00+ as Duckett continues to take his attacking mindset to the bowlers. 

Plus, with poor batting returns from many of his team-mates as well as Afghanistan’s line-up on Friday and Saturday, the 30-year-old could well be a top performer once again.

Temba Bavuma to score a fifty in the match (Australia vs South Africa) - 39/20 with Highbet

The South Africa skipper hit his second successive ODI half-century in the comfortable win over Afghanistan and he has now posted a score of 50+ in seven of his last 12 international innings from late November onwards.

Odds correct at the time of writing.