Glenn Maxwell, the man who prevent Afghanistan from their first historical win against Australia in ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 at Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai. At a time Australia was 91 for 7. It was looking like the victory is just a matter of time for Afghanistan. But Maxi has another plan. His strong bat snatched the game away from the opponent. He made his first double century in the process, transforming Afghan batter Ibrahim Zadran’s historical century into vain.
Winning the toss Afghanistan went to bat first. Afghanistan have produced a stellar campaign so far as they are coming into this contest with wins against Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the Netherlands standing sixth in the points table. They started well against Aussie bowling attack. Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Zadran opened for the Afghanis and played a 38-run partnership. Afghanistan’s maiden World Cup century came after Zadran played a 129-run knock from 143 balls against the Aussies. He was outstanding today. Thanks to his brilliant knock of 129, Afghanistan posted a challenging 291 for 5 against an attack comprising Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa. Rashid Khan played a steamy 35 off 18 balls with two fours and three sixes.
Then the Afghan bowlers started the show. They just made the australian batting line-up trembling. Travis Head was the first man to go to the pavilion when the team score was 4. Travis Head was out for duck and Marsh was trapped LBW by Naveen. Then Omarzai got two in two to leave Austalia at 49/4. Maxwell came out to face a hat-trick ball and survived a scare. Then he was given a life by Shahidi who couldn’t reach to a miscued shot and an LBW review went in his favour as a Noor Ahmad ball was anticipated to go over the stumps. After that it was a wicket falling show. Soon Australia was 91 for 7 in 18.3 overs. Then Maxwell took the responsibility. He built the innings bit by bit. Pat Cummings played his part to hold the other end. Later on his innings it was total Maxwell show. Maxwell went hammer and tongs at the Afghan bowlers. With Cummings he made unbeaten 202 runs partnership, where Glenn Maxwell scored 201* off 128 balls and the other player in the partnership scored 12 off 68 balls. Australia won the match 3.1 overs remaining by 3 wickets.
Maxwell has been awarded as player of the match for his match winning performance. He said, “I wanted to stay back and get some movement. Not too much (when asked about plans at 92/7), just stick to the batting plans as much as possible, for me, still be positive, still look to play my shots, that LBW, it was going just above, probably that made me be more proactive.” Hashmatullah Shahidi, Afghanistan captain said, “Very disappointed. Cricket in a funny game, it was unbelievable for us. We were in the game, our bowlers started very well and dropped chances hurt us. After that, Maxwell doesn’t stop, he played any kind of shot and I can give credit to him. I think the dropped catches were the key, after that Maxwell played really well.”