[ad_1]
Unbelievable, outrageous, unthinkable, mind-boggling, get all your adjectives together and it will still fall short to describe what Glenn Maxwell did in the World Cup 2023 match against Afghanistan at the Wankhede Stadium in Pune. Maxwell smashed an unbeaten 201 off 128 balls in Mumbai on Tuesday, single-handedly guiding Australia to an improbable three-wicket win that sealed their spot in the semi-finals. It was the first double century by an Australian male in white-ball cricket, it was the first-ever ODI double century by anyone in a run chase. It was also the most runs scored by any batter in ODIs coming in to bat at No.7 or lower, better the great Kapil Dev’s unforgettable 175* vs Zimbabwe in the 1983 World Cup.
Legendary Pakistan fast bowler Wasim Akram said Maxwell’s knock was ‘stuff of legends’ and those who say someone can’t win a match alone are liars. “Unbelievable. One-man show, the stuff of the legends. There’s a saying that ‘one guy can’t win you a game.’ What an absolute lie. We saw today that one man can win you a match from an unbelievable situation. The stages he went through, the craps he was getting, every cricketer will tell you that cramps are very painful and it doesn’t go away that easily. But he stood there, kept batting,” Akram said on A Sports.
Australia were 91 for 7 at one stage, still needing 202 more runs to win when Maxwell found an able ally in captain Pat Cummins. The all-rounder didn’t try anything fancy and just held one end up to let Maxwell work his magic. In the unbeaten 202-run stand – the highest-ever for the 8th wicket in World Cups – Cummins only contributed 12 off 68 balls. “Credit also to their captain who understood the situation. He just got 12 runs off 68 balls. He tried to give the strike back to the main batter,” Akram said.
‘Best ODI player of the world’: Akram on Maxwell
The former Pakistan captain said Maxwell’s innings was the best he has seen in his lifetime. “Maxwell showed he is the best one-day player right now in one-day cricket. 201* off 128 balls, 10 sixes, 21 fours, I’ve played for 20 years, I’ve been working on it for 20 years but have never heard or seen an innings like this.”
For Maxwell, it was all a bit of fun. “It was great fun. It just felt like it was me and Patty (Cummins) just having fun out there,” he told reporters. “We were keeping each other pretty calm with jokes most of the time. When he first came out, he goes, ‘Don’t worry, they’re four overs down, they’re going to have an extra fielder in for the last four overs’. We just tried to keep the mood nice and light. Obviously, it wasn’t an ideal situation, but we just tried to relax each other as much as we could.”
Maxwell’s night looked over when on 147 he slumped to the ground after taking a single. Cramped up in both legs, he also suffered a back spasm while lying down.
There was talk of retiring from his innings and possibly returning but medical staff warned that coming down the stairs to return to the crease might prove impossible.
So he elected to plough on and rely mostly on his reflexes and hands to smash anything in the zone.
“So that probably made the job a bit more simple,” he said.
“It wasn’t all just, like, chaotic swinging but there was a bit of planning to it.”
[ad_2]
Source link