In the World Cup, the injured Australian player Glenn Maxwell snatched victory from the mouth of Afghanistan and broke many records with a double century. Qualified for semi-final as well. In the match being played at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai, Afghanistan won the toss and decided to bat first. The Afghan openers gave their team a 38-run start, but on the same score, Josh Hazlewood dismissed Rahmanullah Garbaz, who scored 21 runs. . After the fall of the first wicket, Rehmat Shah came to support Ibrahim Zadran and both managed the batting line and established a partnership of 83 runs for the second wicket. Ibrahim completed a half-century with a brilliant performance but Glenn Maxwell in the process dismissed Rahmat Shah who scored 30 runs. Ibrahim also made a partnership of 52 runs with captain Hashmatullah Shahidi, but the Afghan captain, who scored 26 runs, was also bowled by Mitchell Starc after being set at the wicket. Azmatullah Umarzai also returned to the pavilion early, but Ibrahim played brilliantly from the other end to complete his century and became the first batsman to score a century for Afghanistan in the World Cup. Mohammad Nabi also hit a six but the 12-run all-rounder’s wickets were scattered by Josh Hazlewood. In the closing overs, both Rashid Khan and Ibrahim went on the offensive and put on a 75-run partnership off the last 36 balls to ensure their team reached a decent total. Afghanistan scored 291 runs for the loss of 5 wickets in the stipulated 50 overs, Ibrahim Zadran played an unbeaten innings of 129 runs off 143 balls with the help of 3 sixes and 8 fours. Rashid Khan also batted aggressively in the final overs and scored 35 runs with the help of 3 sixes and two fours. For Australia, Hazlewood took 2 wickets while Starc, Maxwell and Adam Zampa took one wicket each. Chasing the target, Australia suffered a major loss in the first over in the form of Travis Head who returned to the pavilion without scoring a run. In the same over, Afghanistan also got a chance to take the wicket of David Warner, but Rahmat Shah, standing in the slip, could not take a difficult catch.
Warner and Mitchell Marsh had just taken the score to 43 when an inbound ball from Naveen-ul-Haq hit Marsh’s pads and was adjudged lbw. The score had barely reached 49 when Azmatullah Umarzai finished off the dangerous David Warner and then had Josh Ingles caught at slip on the very next ball. Marnes Labushin combined with Maxwell to take the score to 69 at a crunch time, but a misunderstanding between the wickets ended Labushin’s 14-run innings. Marcus Stoins, not understanding the delicacy of the situation, tried to reverse sweep Rashid Khan and was declared lbw, while when Rashid walked Starc in the next over, the Australian team lost 7 wickets for 91 runs and reached the brink of defeat. There was a mill. At this stage Australia’s Maxwell took the field and played an incredible and record-breaking innings to guide his team to victory with 19 balls to spare. Maxwell first completed his century and then converted it into a double century to give his team a 3-wicket victory. The aggressive all-rounder scored 201 runs off just 128 balls with 10 sixes and 21 fours and took his team straight to the semi-finals. Both the teams for the match consist of these players.
