ODI World Cup 2023

'Ye Maxwell vs Australia tha' - Twitter errupts as Australia script historic win against Afghanistan in ODI World Cup 2023

On the back of this brilliant win against Afghanistan, the Australian team have qualified for Semi Finals of the tournament and have become the third team to do so.

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Sarah Andrew
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Glenn Maxwell (Source: Twitter)

Match number 39 of the ODI World Cup 2023 saw the five-time World Champions, Australia up against Afghanistan in a must-win game for the Afghans if they needed to qualify for the Semi-finals. The match was certainly a one-sided affair at the end as it was Glenn Maxwell Show at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. It was courtesy of his innings that Australia won the match by seven wickets against Afghanistan. In addition to this, on the back of this brilliant win, the Australian team have qualified for the finals of the tournament. This is also the sixth win in a row from Australia. 

Earlier in the game, Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi won the toss and elected to bat first. The Afghanistan team had a steady start to their innings as both Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran tried negotiating the early burst from Mitchell Starc and Josh Hazlewood. But it was Hazlewood in the eighth over of the game who got the dangerous-looking Gurbaz. But the Afghanistan side looked to stitch valuable partnerships in the middle order with Ibrahim playing the role of an anchor.

With the useful contribution of Rahmat Shah (30), skipper Shahidi (26) and Azmatullah Omarzai the Afghanistan team was able to post a total of 291/5 in the allocated 50 over. The star of the show for the Afghanistan team was Ibrahim Zadran who played a brilliant innings of 129 runs including eight boundaries and three sixes and Rashid Khan towards the backend of the innings with a brilliant 35 runs off 18 balls.

Maxwell’s double hundred guides Australia to the Semi-Final

In pursuit of a challenging total, the Australian team did not have the best of starts as they the wicket of Travis Head in the second over of their innings. Both the Afghanistan pacers, Omerzai and Naveen-ul-Haq were bowling in tough channels and the wickets kept on tumbling for the Aussies. At one stage, the five-time World Champions were 91/7 with all the batters back in the hut apart from Glenn Maxwell.

 Maxwell along with skipper Pat Cummins slowly tried building the partnership with Maxwell being the aggressor and Cummins playing the second fiddle. After being dropped on a score of 33 runs, the legendary Australian batter took on the attack and smashed every Afghan bowler all around the park. At one stage Maxwell was suffering from cramps and the physios came running in time and time again but they continued to play in that pain-guided Australia home.

 Once he completed his century in 76 deliveries, there was absolute mayhem for Afghanistan bowlers. The remainder of the match was dominated by Maxwell, who scored a remarkable double-century and shared a 202-run partnership with Pat Cummins, who added only 12 runs. This collaboration guided Australia to an exciting 3-wicket win with 3.1 overs remaining.

Let us look at how Twitter has reacted to this victory from Australia:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Australia Glenn Maxwell