The Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan remembers the match-winning knock of the Australia spin all-rounder Glenn Maxwell, who on one leg carried his team over the line against Australia during the last ODI World Cup 2023, at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.
The leg-spinner points out that he still has nightmares of that unbeaten double century from the bat of Maxwell, and feels that unbelievable knock from the batter still makes his body react to it.
Afghanistan came into that encounter on the back of their three successive wins, while the Pat Cummins-led side was unbeaten for the last five games, after starting the tournament on a difficult note with two consecutive losses against India and South Africa.
‘Sometimes when I think about that game, my body just changes’- Rashid Khan
Rashid Khan, during a recent interview with the International Cricket Council (ICC), feels that Maxwell’s knock was one of the best innings he ever saw in the format of the game.
Winning the toss, the Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi opted to bat first, to put the opponents in the humid and hot conditions of Mumbai. They had a decent opening partnership of 38 runs, before losing Rahmanullah Gurbaz.
But Rahmat Shah and the other opener Ibrahim Zadran put up a great 83-run stand for the second wicket, which helped them get into the rhythm of the contest. They lost a few wickets at a cluster in the middle overs, but Zadran held his one end till the end.
The right-handed opener brought up his fifth One-day International century and ended with a fabulous knock of 129 runs in 143 balls, shouldering on eight boundaries and three over-boundaries. Rashid Khan, too coming late in the innings, ended up with an unbeaten knock of 35 runs in 18 balls, at a strike rate of close to 200, with the help of a couple of fours, and three sixes.
Australia, in reply, was under pressure early on in the innings, as they lost three wickets at one stage for only six runs, and finally found themselves struggling at 91/7 in the 19th over. Then came the moment, Cummins joined Maxwell in the middle, as the latter started to limp with cramps.
Cummins looked to defend every ball, while Glenn always looked to weigh on the big shots, as he kept on nailing the big shots from the other end. They hardly ran any single or double for the rest of the innings.
Rashid Khan, who ended with figures of 2/44 in 10 overs, spoke about the moment, in a recent interview with the ICC.
‘At night, whenever I’m going to sleep, sometimes I do think about that game. It just comes in the mind. Sometimes when I think about that game, my body just changes.’ The spin all-rounder of Afghanistan Rashid Khan expressed in the chat. ‘That was an unbelievable knock, one of the best innings we have ever seen.’
Maxwell ended up with an unbeaten knock of 201 runs with the help of 21 boundaries and 10 sixes, while Cummins stood like a rock for his 12 runs in 68 balls, to carry them over the line, with three wickets in hand.
However, in the ongoing T20 World Cup, Maxwell is under a little bit of pressure with a rough patch that has been going on since the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024, for the Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). He finally came up with a six-ball 14-run knock against Bangladesh, in the super-eight stage.
‘Over the last few games, I’ve been a little bit tentative … trying to poke way into a gap and get one. (But) I’ve got to play the strengths that I have a bit more often.’ Maxwell spoke about this in a chat. ‘Sometimes your mind can start to play a few tricks on you. you start to look at previous scores. But at this stage of the tournament, I’ve just gone back to what I do really well. And hopefully, that holds me in good stead.’
Under Rashid Khan’s leadership, Afghanistan will face Australia next on June 23, at the Arnos Vale Ground in Kingstown, St Vincent.