Image Credit- AFP
Following an incredible one-man comeback in Mumbai,
Australia secured their spot in the World Cup semi-finals, with Pat Cummins
hailing Glenn Maxwell’s undefeated double-century against Afghanistan as
“the greatest ODI innings that’s ever happened”.
Australia was chasing 292 to win, but they were down
to 91 for 7 in the 19th over. Then, Maxwell and Cummins combined for an
unprecedented eighth-wicket stand of 202, made even more amazing by the fact
that Maxwell suffered from cramps almost to the point of near-incapacitation
halfway through his innings.
Asked how he was feeling after his exertions, Maxwell
said at the Player-of-the-Match presentation: “Horrific! I feel shocking!
It was obviously quite hot when we’re fielding today, and I haven’t really done
a whole lot of high-intensity exercise in the heat, and it certainly got a hold
of me today.
“We came out with a plan to stay at the same end
for a little bit until I could get some movement back, and luckily enough I was
able to stick it out to the end.”
Maxwell downplayed his performance after recording a
World Cup record forty-ball century against the Netherlands, in part because he
needed a big dose of early luck to deliver his game-winning blow.
When he reached the crease in the ninth over, he was
up against a hat-trick ball from an energised Azmatullah Omarzai. He dutifully
withstood a review for leg before wicket after edging a precise delivery off
the line of his off stump, but it took him several more attempts to find his
range.
“Look, it would have been nice if it was
chanceless,” Maxwell said. “I lived a charmed life out there. I was
very lucky. And I suppose I just made the most of that. I feel like I’ve had
those types of innings before, where I’ve been given a chance and I haven’t
made the most of it, so to see it through tonight with a not out at the end is
something I’m really proud of.”
His captain, however, was less reserved about the
spectacle he had witnessed up close from the non-striker’s end. “Just
ridiculous … I don’t know how you describe that,” Cummins said at the
post-match presentation. “Maxi was out of this world. It’s got to be the
greatest ODI innings that’s ever happened.”