Afghanistan Vs Australia 39Th Match

Afghanistan set a total

Afghanistan had already beaten England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka at the 2023 World Cup by the time they reached the Wankhede Stadium to play Australia on 7 November, results that had turned them from a team nobody expected much of into one that could still, on a good day, reach the semi-finals. Australia, by contrast, had lost their first two matches of the tournament before winning eight in a row, and arrived at this fixture as one of the form sides in the competition despite the shaky start. Hashmatullah Shahidi won the toss and chose to bat. It was a decision that produced their highest total of the tournament: 291 for 5 from 50 overs, batting first on a pitch that was true for batting once the shine had gone off the new ball.

Zadran carries the innings

Ibrahim Zadran, still only 21, batted through the innings for an unbeaten 129 from 143 balls, adding 83 with Rahmat Shah for the second wicket, 52 with his captain Hashmatullah Shahidi for the third and 58 in the last few overs with Rashid Khan, who made an unbeaten 35 from 18 balls. Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood, Adam Zampa and Glenn Maxwell shared the five wickets to fall on a fast Wankhede outfield that mostly favoured the bat, though Hazlewood kept things tight throughout, finishing with the innings' best economy at 4.33 an over. Zadran's innings, built from careful running between the wickets in the middle overs and a burst of boundaries at the death, was the platform for everything that followed later in the day.

Australia collapse

Australia's reply began badly and got worse. Travis Head was caught for a duck in the second over, Mitchell Marsh was lbw for 24, and David Warner and Josh Inglis both went in the same over to leave Australia 49 for 4. Naveen-ul-Haq and Azmatullah Omarzai had taken two wickets each, bowling with the kind of pace and swing that had already troubled far stronger batting orders in the tournament. Marnus Labuschagne was run out for 14, and when Marcus Stoinis was lbw to Rashid Khan and Mitchell Starc was caught off the same bowler, Australia were 91 for 7 in the 19th over, needing 201 more runs to win with only three wickets standing, a position from which almost no side in the history of one-day cricket had gone on to win. On paper, and by any normal measure of the game, the match was already lost. Afghanistan, still in the running for a first World Cup semi-final, could see a result that would have been the biggest win in their cricketing history opening up in front of them, and their fielders and bowlers sensed it, celebrating every dot ball and every misfield from the Australians with the energy of a team that knew exactly how close it was.

Maxwell, alone and cramping

Glenn Maxwell had come in at the fall of the fifth wicket and was still there. Afflicted by severe cramp that left him barely able to run between the wickets, he changed his method, standing still at the crease and hitting through the line rather than working the ball into gaps, an approach that became one of the most talked-about passages of batting in the sport's history. At one stage he needed a medical assessment and could do little more than swing the bat from a stationary base, relying on his partners to take the singles and twos while he cleared the boundary whenever the bowlers erred in length. He reached fifty, then a hundred from 83 balls, and kept going as Australia's hopes, which had all but disappeared at 91 for 7, were carried on his innings alone.

202 with Cummins

His captain Pat Cummins came in at number nine and simply stayed with him. The pair added 202 for the eighth wicket from 170 balls, with Maxwell scoring 179 of them, and it remains the highest eighth-wicket partnership in men's ODI history. Cummins offered little beyond occupation of the crease, content to leave the scoring to his batting partner while absorbing whatever Afghanistan's bowlers could throw at him, and that discipline mattered as much to the outcome as anything Maxwell did with the bat. Maxwell brought up his double century and finished 201 not out from 128 balls as Australia reached 293 for 7 with 19 balls to spare, winning by three wickets. Rashid Khan, who had taken two wickets earlier in the innings and bowled his full ten overs, could find no way through in the overs that mattered most, and Afghanistan's fielders, so sharp earlier in the day, had nothing left to change the outcome as Maxwell kept finding the boundary rope even off deliveries that looked, to everyone watching, unhittable from a man who could barely stand upright between shots.

What the innings meant

Glenn Maxwell was named Man of the Match for an innings that is still the highest individual score made in a successful ODI run chase, and one of only a small number of double centuries ever scored in a World Cup match. Australia went on to win the tournament a month later, beating India in the final in Ahmedabad, a result that gave Pat Cummins' side its sixth World Cup title. Afghanistan finished the tournament outside the semi-final places, but their results that year, including this near miss against the eventual champions, marked the country's arrival as a genuine force in the one-day game rather than a side making up the numbers. The full Wankhede scorecard, with every partnership and fall of wicket, is on this page. See how the two sides were built on the Afghanistan and Australia team pages, and in The Chase you can bat for Australia from 91 for 7 and see if you can find 201 of your own.

Sources

• CricArcade World Cup archive: the full scorecard, fall of wickets and partnerships on this page
• ESPNcricinfo: Afghanistan v Australia, 2023 World Cup, Mumbai, scorecard and report
• Wisden Cricketers' Almanack 2024: the 2023 World Cup