Glenn Maxwell limps, crawl, falls but still sprints past the finish line against Afghanan at Cricket World Cup | Cricket-world-cup News

“Can’t move, but hits a six over third man. He’s a freak, different universe.”Australian captain Pat Cummins has been around for a long time to know Glenn Maxwell is a ‘freak’. But even then, as he watched the ‘greatest ODI innings’, the Australia captain could scarcely believe what had transpired.
Cummins wasn’t the only one left with that feeling.
“World-class innings,” Afghanan’s English coach Jonathan Trott, a victim of many such Australian comebacks, said in admiration. Rashid Khan, their talisman, walked up to a hobbling Maxwell and gave him a bear hug.
Deep within, Trott, Rashid and the rest of the Afghanan players must be deeply disappointed. The stage was set for them to record their biggest win ever. The final confirmation, if it was ever needed, of their arrival on the big stage. And a giant leap towards the World Cup semifinals.
None of that happened. Instead, they were at the receiving end of an innings that will go down in cricketing folklore.
Afghanan set Australia a target of 292. They had them pinned at 91 for 7. And then Maxwell happened, as he made a mockery of the run chase. Wounded and unable to even stand on his feet, he went on to score an unbeaten 201 to lead Australia to a three-wicket win, which secured their spot in the semifinals.
At what point it stopped being an Afghanan vs Australia match and turned into a full-blown Maxwell show is hard to say. The second ball of the 22nd over is a good reference point.
Australia were four down and suddenly, Afghanan’s par score seemed like an insurmountable peak. And the umpire had adjudged Maxwell leg before off a Noor Ahmad delivery.
Afghanan began celebrating as if they’d already won the match. The Australian dugout sat there mourning their humiliation. And Maxwell began his march back, convinced it was all over. Then, he glanced at the stadium screen as the review played out. The ball had missed the inside edge, and pitched in line with leg stump. But ball-tracking suggested it was bouncing over the stumps.
Maxwell quickly turned back and returned to the crease. Three balls later, he got another life – this time, dropped Mujeeb ur Rahman at short fine-leg.
The two lifelines were all he needed. And Afghanan, who had so far in the tournament shown impeccable emotional balance, lost the plot.
Unable to walk, let alone run, for half of his innings due to cramp, Maxwell went berserk as he hit a total of 21 fours and 10 sixes. Cummins held the other end – he faced 68 balls for 12 runs – and ensured Australia did not lose any more wickets.
It felt like Maxwell was batting on a different pitch in different conditions compared to all his teammates, who couldn’t deal with the swing that the Afghan bowlers extracted from the surface.
Wobbly start
The demons at Wankhede come out at night, under lights.
In the three matches here before Tuesday, the scores of the chasing team at the end of the first Powerplay have been thus: 67/4, 35/3 and 14/6.
When David Warner drove Mujeeb through the covers off the first ball, it felt like Australia would buck the trend. But the time the 10th over was bowled, the former champions were reeling at 52/4. And it seemed they would never recover.
Sensing blood, the Afghanan players circled the wounded Aussies like eagles. And for once, Australia looked vulnerable.
It was Naveen-ul-Haq who triggered Australia’s remarkable meltdown. Two days ago, the speedster had tried to get under the thick Australian skin passing a snarky remark over the team’s refusal to play them in a bilateral series, citing human rights violations under Taliban rule. “Two points or human rights?” Naveen’s barb read.
Hory suggests it’s never a smart move to rile up the Aussies, especially before a big match. But Naveen walked his big talk.
He found the perfect line with his second ball – angled into the left-handed Travis Head and then swinging away from the off-stump, just enough to catch the outside edge, safely held on wicketkeeper Ikram Alikhil.
A couple of overs later, Naveen pitched the ball full and got it to nip back to beat the inside edge and crash into Mitchell Marsh’s pads. The Afghan players didn’t even wait for the umpire to raise his finger, confident that it would crash into the middle and leg stumps, and Marsh seemed to agree with their conjecture.
Suddenly, Australia were left with a mountain to climb. And there would be no respite.
The third and fourth wickets were even more beautifully constructed, this time Azmatullah Omarzai. The 23-year-old pacer, playing only his 20th ODI, put Warner on the back-foot, forcing him to defend with his consent line and length around off-stump.
The maiden seventh over further stifled the already-rattled Australians and when Omarzai returned to bowl the ninth, he castled Warner with a ball that was fuller and swung in sharply. He got the next ball to swing the other way, which caught the outside edge of Josh Inglis’ bat and Ibrahim Zadran made no make at slip.
A little later, after Marnus Labuschagne’s desperate dive wasn’t enough to save him from getting run out – pushing Australia further into the ass – the talk was no longer about whether Ibrahim had been too slow to get to his hundred earlier in the day or if Rashid Khan’s six-hitting spree was too little, too late. It was, instead, about the margin which Australia would lose.
Nearly retired hurt
Perhaps, Afghanan’s players got a little carried away – as Trott admitted later – and didn’t do enough to dismiss Maxwell.Most Read
1
Angelo Mathews timed out; why was Sourav Ganguly not timed out even when he came out to bat once after 6 minutes?

2
‘Emotional’ Amitabh Bachchan recalls Dhirubhai Ambani offering monetary help during bankruptcy: ‘Iska bura waqt hai…’ Watch throwback video

See More

Cummins feared the big hitter would have to retire hurt when he collapsed to the ground with around eight overs left. He even asked Adam Zampa to pad up before the physio convinced Maxwell to stay on, and from that moment on, Australia were happy simply to let Maxwell deal in boundaries, not bothering to run between wickets.
And when, on the fifth delivery of the 47th over, Maxwell shuffled the leg he could barely move and unleashed an almighty heave to send the ball flying into the stands over deep square-leg, he spread his arms open and for the first time and smiled.
At the other end, all Cummins could do was stand and applaud. It was a freak show. And he had the best seat in the house to watch it.