As the Champions Trophy kicked off, Australia faced a barrage of bad news. Regular captain Pat Cummins and star pacer Josh Hazlewood were ruled out due to injuries, and Marcus Stoinis’s sudden retirement announcement pushed the team further back. A humiliating whitewash by Sri Lanka before the tournament had already cast shadows over the reigning ODI champions.
However, being Australia, a comeback was perhaps written in their destiny. In the previous innings, English batter Ben Duckett set a record by scoring 165 runs off 143 balls, leading England to a staggering total of 351 runs—the highest in the tournament’s history. Chasing such a mountain of runs demanded nothing short of rewriting history for Australia, and that’s exactly what they did at Lahore’s Gaddafi Stadium.
Behind an outstanding unbeaten 120 from Josh Inglis, Australia reached their target in just 47.3 overs, defeating their arch-rivals England by five wickets and marking the highest successful chase in any ICC tournament.
While Inglis’s innings may not have been packed with records like Duckett’s, it epitomized the essence of cricket as a team sport. Matthew Short, Marnus Labuschagne, and Alex Carey all played pivotal roles in building the innings. On his ODI debut, Inglis stood firm, scoring 120 runs off 86 balls.
Chasing a record 352 runs required Australia to create history, and they executed it brilliantly. Despite losing Travis Head and Steve Smith early on, the Australian batters refused to be shaken. Matthew Short and Marnus Labuschagne laid a solid foundation, while Alex Carey played aggressively. In the end, with nerves of steel, Josh Inglis led Australia to a remarkable victory.
This match also marked the first victory for a team that had not won in the last two editions, bringing a triumphant start to their campaign for the 2025 tournament.
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