'When You Get an Opportunity Against a Side Like Australia, You've Got to Grab It'

Australia were 7 down for 91 when Glenn Maxwell started plying his trade in the tricky chase of 292 against Afghanistan on Tuesday in Mumbai. But what unfolded next will haunt the Afghans for the rest of their lives. Afghanistan were in total control of the game, inching closer to the fourth win on the trot in the ongoing World Cup 2023. The momentum was in their favour but they lost it after a couple of dropped catches of Maxwell. It allowed the Australian all-rounder to wreak havoc at Wankhede Stadium as he ended up playing the best-ever knock during a run-chase in ODIs.

After getting dropped by Hasmathullah Shahidi and then surviving a leg-before, Mujeeb ur Rahman dropped Maxwell for 33 in the 22^nd over off Noor Ahmad’s bowling. After a few close shaves, the Aussie all-rounder didn’t look back and appeared as a horrible nightmare for the Afghans, smashing an unbeaten 201 to seal the semi-final spot for Australia.

Follow all the action from the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 including the World Cup schedule, World Cup 2023 results, and ICC Cricket World Cup points table. Players are vying to top the World Cup 2023 Most Runs and World Cup 2023 Most Wickets charts. 

Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott admitted that a couple of dropped chances to remove Maxwell not only took the momentum away from the team but also the encouragement to bounce back.

“Unfortunately, the second catch went down, everyone just seemed to sort of think –  just waiting for him, you know, Maxwell to get out. I didn’t see a lot of encouragement or people cheering up each other and encouraging each other. It seemed to sort of like the attitude was a little bit, well, we’ll just, hopefully, we’ll still win type thing,” Trott told reporters after the game.

The Afghan head coach said when a team like Australia give chances, the opposition can’t dare lose them.

“It’s not a case of when you get an opportunity against a side like Australia, you’ve got to grab it. They’re not going to just give it to you. And you’ve got to take it. If you get a chance to take it, you’ve got to take it. And that’s the type of things we’ll learn from today and what we just spoke about in the dressing room,” he added.

Afghanistan, tied on 8 points with Pakistan and New Zealand, have the worst NRR (of -0.338) among all three. They will next face South Africa on Friday in Ahmedabad.