Glenn Maxwell saves Australia with "Greatest innings of all time!"

Australia have pulled off one of the great Cricket World Cup comebacks and avoided an upset to Afghanistan after Glenn Maxwell single-handedly led them to a three-wicket win.

Maxwell smashed 201 from 128 balls in stunning style after suffering cramp midway through his innings. Australia were struggling at 91 for seven but Maxwell brought them right back into contention before setting up the win by putting on 202 for the eighth wicket with Pat Cummins adding just 12 off 68 balls at the other end.

Maxwell could barely walk let alone run to the other end and ended the innings with 31 boundaries going 6, 6, 4 and 6 to bring up his double century and the winning runs with Australia reaching 293 for seven with 19 balls remaining.

Afghanistan were denied the chance to move to 10 points which would have seen them leapfrog New Zealand into fourth on the table. They still have a chance to make the semifinals for the first time but will need to beat South Africa, along with both Pakistan (v England) and the Black Caps (v Sri Lanka) losing their final matches.

After losing their opening two games to India and South Africa, Australia have won six straight to book a semifinal spot for the eighth time in the last nine World Cup tournaments.

Maxwell became the first Australian male to score an ODI double ton and the partnership smashed the previous ODI record for the eighth wicket which stood at 138.

“I haven’t really done a whole lot of high-intensity exercise in the heat. It certainly got ahold of me today,” Maxwell said. “Lucky enough, I was able to stick it out to the end.”

This article was first published on nzherald.co.nz and is republished here with permission