At the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Tuesday, Australia’s batting all-rounder Glenn Maxwell scored an incredible 201* off 128 balls to lead his team to a three-wicket victory against Afghanistan in match number 39 of the 2023 World Cup. The Australians’ victory also guaranteed them a position in the tournament’s semi-finals.
Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat first. They fared well to record 291/5, with Ibrahim Zadran (129* off 143) becoming the first batsman from his nation to make a century in the ODI World Cup. Rashid Khan (35* off 18) provided the finishing touches to the innings with a superb cameo.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, continued to chip away at Australia’s wickets. They dropped Glenn Maxwell early in his innings, and the “Big Show” made them pay, smacking 21 fours and 10 sixes in his remarkable performance. In the end, Australia outscored Afghanistan in 46.5 overs.
After the victory, Australian captain Pat Cummins called Glenn Maxwell’s performance the “greatest ODI innings that has ever happened.” We look at three reasons why he could be correct.
1. Scoring 200 in a chase is a phenomenal effort
Even though a handful of hitters have attained the milestone in recent years, scoring a double hundred in ODIs is difficult. when reaching a double century when batting first is a fantastic performance, doing it while chasing is truly remarkable.
It’s no surprise, therefore, that Glenn Maxwell became the first hitter in ODI history to achieve a double century in a chase. The previous high was 193 by Pakistan’s Fakhar Zaman in a loss to South Africa in Johannesburg in April 2021. This simply goes to show how difficult it is to bat second.
Another Aussie, former all-rounder Shane Watson, is second on the list of top batter scores in winning causes. at 2011, he scored an unbeaten 185 off 96 balls against Bangladesh at Mirpur. In 2005 and 2012, MS Dhoni and Virat Kohli both scored 183 in chases.
On the other hand, 10 double hundreds have been achieved by batsmen when their team bats first, and two 194s have also been recorded by Charles Coventry and Saeed Anwar, respectively. All of these runs, including the one by Dhoni (who batted at No. 3), came in the top order.
The statistics make it quite evident that Glenn Maxwell’s knock was a once-in-a-lifetime effort.
2. The precarious game situation
Glenn Maxwell not only played a magnificent knock, but he did it with his team’s back against the wall. Few teams could have come back from 91/7 to successfully pursue 292. Australia achieved it, and they did it almost entirely due of one man’s effort, with Cummins (12* off 68) serving as a backup act.
With 201 runs in a total of 293, Maxwell scored over 70% of the runs – the “Big Show” performing a one-man show. That isn’t everything. In the World Cup match against Afghanistan, the 35-year-old batted at No. 6. His double hundred is by far the best score by a hitter at that position in an ODI chase.
The second best is 128 from 109 balls by the West Indies against England in North Sound in 2014. The knock, however, came in a losing cause, as the Windies were defeated by 25 runs in a 304-run chase.
If we look at winning causes, Ricardo Powell’s 124 off 93 balls for West Indies against India in Singapore in September 1999 is the highest score by a batsman [after Maxwell] in a chase while batting at No. 6. This reveals a great deal about the extent of Maxwell’s knock.
3. Glenn Maxwellbattled cramps and back spasms
A good reason to suggest that Maxwell’s 201* is still the best one-day innings is him defying pain and health problems while not giving up.V This right-handed batter had cramps on the legs as well as back spams. For some period in his life, he felt as if he could not go on with life. But, he did and how!
Afterwards, Australian skipper Pat Cummins confessed that there was no way he thought Glenn Maxwell had anything in him, who had suffered horrible cramps.
“Yeah, I thought he was going off, so I kind of signaled to Zamps [Zampa] to get down here because he literally couldn’t move. The physio was out there obviously and he kind of convinced Maxi that if he came off it might be worse off, so try and hang out there. Stand up.”
Glenn Maxwell
At the end of the day, Glenn Maxwell’s amazing knock demonstrated not just his great talent, but also his immense mental fortitude. For those two reasons, no one can argue that Big Show’s ODI knock is the best ever.
