The 39th fixture of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 between Afghanistan and Australia will perhaps go down in history as the game that was ‘A One Man Show’.
Today, there was no one else who could have stood between Australia’s star Glenn Maxwell’s desire to carry his team into the semi-finals and his goal. The Afghanistan team did really well on their part, but Maxwell outdid them all which ended with Australia beating Afghanistan by three wickets.
Afghanistan won the toss in Mumbai and chose to bat first.
Starting their innings with Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran, Afghanistan lost their first wicket at 38 runs, followed by the second at 121. Pretty soon, Afghanistan found themselves in a precarious situation as their hopes of putting up a big total on the scoreboard hung in the balance, but Zadran held strong and went on to hit an unbeaten 129 runs off 143 balls. Afghanistan were at 233 at the loss of five wickets in the 46th over when Khan walked onto the crease. His shots knew no bounds today. Zadran and Khan hit some really big shots towards the end which brought the team’s total to 291/5.
Australia’s innings
It all started great for Afghanistan in the second innings as the five-time champion lost seven of their wickets at the score of 91. By this time, Maxwell was on the crease. Afghanistan missed several chances to take Maxwell out of the field, giving him more time to settle. Once settled, Maxwell turned into their biggest nightmare as he single handedly led his team to victory by scoring an unbeaten 201 runs of just 128 balls. He left no room for error, leaving the Afghanistan bowlers scouring for a wicket.
His exemplary performance led to Australia registering their highest run chase in ODI World Cup history. Maxwell was ultimately given the ‘Player of the Match’ award.
With this victory, Australia became the third team which has qualified for the semi-finals, leaving just one spot open. It is now to see which other team team joins India, South Africa and Australia in the semi-finals.