Maxwell's sensational double century powers Australia into semifinals

MUMBAI: Batting on one leg, Glenn Maxwell used his bat like a butcher’s blade and produced an astonishing double century to singlehandedly lift Australia into another World Cup semi-final with a three-wicket win over Afghanistan here on Tuesday.

Chasing a target of 292, everyone at the Wankhede Stadium rubbed their eyes in disbelief as Australia slumped to 91 for 7 in 18.3 overs and staring at an annihilation.

But Maxwell had other ideas. With some slice of luck, he launched into an over-eager Afghan attack, smashing an unbeaten 201 off 128 balls with the help of 21 fours and 10 sixes to end the game in 46.5 overs.

With 12 points and a match left, Australia joined India (16 points) and South Africa (12 points) in the last four stage while 11 incredibly talented Afghanistan cricketers, who had almost ensured that their fairy tale story don’t reach its epilogue, found themselves on the wrong side of the result.

History will judge if the knock at Wankhede, in terms of match situation, could be termed the greatest in ODI cricket. Who knows, it could act as the perfect fuel for Australia to win its sixth World Cup.

Batting on one leg after suffering from cramps, Maxwell just used his strong core and stable base to practice range-hitting as Hashmatullah Shahidi’s bowlers erred tactically, feeding him with length balls on slot which allowed him to just plonk his front-foot and use his brute strength to let them all land into the Wankhede stands.

There was practically no footwork required and Afghanistan bowlers didn’t alter the length as Maxwell was an example of what stand and deliver means.

The decision to keep Rashid Khan’s last spell for the back-end also backfired as Maxwell had skipper Pat Cummins for company, who channelised his “inner Cheteshwar Pujara” (12 not out in 68 balls) in their record-breaking 202-run stand for the eighth wicket.

Once known as the ‘Big Show’, a demeaning term used to describe a young Maxwell’s early days of inconsistence, the cricket world on Tuesday witnessed what the coinage meant.

He was in unbearable pain, needing extended medical time-outs even as Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott looked agitated standing on the boundary line.

Maxwell got up and played a reverse slog sweep off pacer Azmatullah Omarzai, 20 metres into the stands in the third man region.

Earlier, buoyed by Sachin Tendulkar’s encouraging words on the eve of the match, 21-year-old Ibrahim Zadran etched his name in Afghanistan’s cricket history by scoring the country’s first ever World Cup hundred that propelled it to a respectable 291 for 5.

Zadran anchored the innings with an unbeaten 129 off 143 balls as Afghanistan scored 64 in last five overs against five-time champion.

Brief scores: Afghanistan 291/5 in 50 overs (I Zadran 129*) lost to Australia 293/7 in 46.5 overs (G Maxwell 201*)