Australia recorded their highest-ever run chase (291) in the ODI World Cup history while playing at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday, November 7 to beat Afghanistan and cement a semifinal berth in the ongoing World Cup.
Player of the Match (POTM) Glenn Maxwell played the best knock of his international career (201* off 128 balls) and won what looked like an unwinnable game at one stage to also record the highest successful chase at the Wankhede Stadium in ODIs.
Chasing a sizeable total of 292 runs, Australia's batters crumbled under the unrelenting pressure that was applied by the Afghanistan seamers up front. Travis Head couldn't even trouble the scorers as he made his way back to the pavilion for a duck.
Head was caught on the crease and had his entire body weight resting on the back foot. The southpaw tried to flirt with an out-swinging delivery outside of his off-stump and was caught behind by Afghanistan wicketkeeper Ikram Alikhil.
In came Mitchell Marsh (24 off 11 balls) who tried to take the game away from the Afghans by playing some eye-catching strokes but was pinned in front of his stumps by Naveen-ul-Haq as the latter bagged his second wicket of the game. Naveen bowled an inswinger which jagged back in sharply and Marsh had no answer for it.
David Warner (18 off 29 balls), and Marnus Labuschagne (14 off 28 balls) tried to weather the storm but perished in their endeavour.
After the dismissal of Mitchell Starc in the 19th over of Australia's chase, Pat Cummins walked in to script a counterattack of a significant order that took the game away from the Afghans.
Maxwell played some jaw-dropping strokes to maul the Afghan spinners whereas Cummins batted sensibly at the other end and relied more on rotation of strike to support Maxwell. The duo of Maxwell and Cummins combined to record the highest-ever eighth wicket stand (202 runs) in the history of ODI cricket and it played a key role in taking Australia over the line.
The highlight of Maxwell's knock was the sheer aplomb with which he kept carrying on despite experiencing cramps at regular intervals during his innings and literally carried the weight of all the hopes on one leg.
Earlier in the day, Afghanistan rode on Ibrahim Zadran's maiden ODI World Cup century to post 291 runs on the board. Zadran anchored Afghanistan's innings superbly and carried his bat.
He scored 129 runs off 143 balls, including eight fours and three sixes at a strike rate of 90.20.
Zadran got support from all his fellow batters, however, none of them managed to hang around for too long barring Rashid Khan. Rashid acted as a catalyst at the death and took on Australia's seam attack.
He pressed the accelerator and played a quick-fire cameo (35* runs off 18 balls) with the help of two fours and three sixes. Afghanistan were lacking some firepower and Rashid's knock provided the same and took them to 291 at the end.
