Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram reserved special praise for Glenn Maxwell.© AFP
Glenn Maxwell smashed an epic match-winning double century as Australia survived a scare to beat Afghanistan by three wickets in their Cricket World Cup match on Tuesday. With his team reeling at 91/7 in a 293 run-chase, Maxwell, riddled with severe cramps, stitched an unbeaten 202-run stand with captain Pat Cummins (12 off 68) to help Australia qualify for the semi-finals. Former Pakistan captain Wasim Akram reserved special praise for Maxwell, saying that the star batter proved the “one guy can’t win you a game” theory completely wrong.
“One man show, stuff of legends. There is a saying, one guy can’t win you a game and obviously what an absolute lie. You have to have heart, to keep on playing despite having cramps. They are very very painful and they do not get away,” Akram said on A Sports.
Akram also hailed Australia skipper Cummins for showing game awareness by soaking all the pressure at one end.
“You have to credit the captain as well. When you talk about situation awareness, that what exactly what he did. 12 runs off 68 balls, he was giving the strike to his main player and he (Maxwell) showed the world, that he is the best one day player right now in world cricket. This is unbelievable, I have never heard of this kind of knock before. I have played cricket for 20 years, worked in cricket for another 20 years and I have never seen anything like this before,” he added.
The only consolation for Afghanistan was Ibrahim Zadran‘s 129 not out. Zadran became the first Afghanistan player to score a century at World Cups.
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