Legendary batter and former Australian captain Ricky Ponting was amazed by Glenn Maxwell's batting blitz against Afghanistan in their World Cup 2023. Maxwell achieved a historic milestone by becoming the first player in ODI history to score a double century while chasing, rescuing Australia from a precarious position at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium on November 7. Despite battling cramps and back spasms, he scored an incredible 201 off 128 balls and led Australia to a thrilling three-wicket victory over Afghanistan.
Ponting was left in complete awe of Maxwell's innings and went on to say that an innings of such extraordinary calibre would never be witnessed again.
"I have been around a lot of games, playing and calling, and I have never seen anything like that, and I will be very surprised if I see anything like that ever again," Ponting told ICC after the match.
Australia faced a dire situation when they lost seven wickets at the lowly score of 91 after 19 overs. Afghanistan's fast bowlers delivered an exceptional performance during the initial powerplay, rattling Australia's entire top order for under 50 runs. Ponting acknowledged Afghanistan's outstanding performance but noted that no one could have anticipated Maxwell's exceptional knock.
"At that stage, Afghanistan were up and about, they were really trying to take it to the Australians. They were verbal, there were things being said. There was great body language from the fielding group. They were really trying to put as much pressure on Australia as they could," Ponting told the ICC.
"Maxwell got through that first ball, got lucky a couple of times and the rest is history. It is an innings that we will be talking about for a long long time. I think at that stage he would have been thinking that he needs to be there till the end of the game for Australia to win. After 49/4 he knew that he had to be the man to take Australia to a win. Australia at one point of time had a 0.3 percent chance of winning the game, that's how much of an innings it is," Ponting lauded Maxwell.
The former World Cup-winning captain examined the partnership between Maxwell and Cummins and said that effective communication played a crucial role for the two players at the Wankhede Stadium.
"Watch that innings. He got boundaries in the first couple of overs and then defended the balls hoping that Pat Cummins will look after the rest of it. There was a lot of communication between Maxwell and Cummins and they got it absolutely right," Ponting analysed the partnership.
Riding on their stunning victory over Afghanistan, Australia secured their spot in the semi-finals, where they will be locking horns with South Africa.
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