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Victoria are closing in on the Sheffield Shield final after another strong day at the WACA

Tristan Lavalette15-Mar-2023Opener Marcus Harris hit a sublime 84 before quick Scott Boland again tormented Western Australia as Victoria moved closer to a pivotal Sheffield Shield victory at the WACA.Enjoying a first innings lead of 176, Victoria’s strong attack continually threatened late on day two with WA reaching stumps at 3 for 88.After taking 4 for 29 in WA’s first innings, having rushed back from Australia’s Test tour of India, Boland dismissed opener Sam Whiteman lbw for a duck.Related

• Boland, Holland, Sutherland run through Western Australia on day one

• All-round Beau Webster adds to Queensland's woes as final hopes dim

• New South Wales chip away after Jack Edwards' century

WA’s woes deepened when teenager Teague Wyllie fell for 16 to leave the hosts in tatters at 2 for 25.Routed for 122 on the opening day, particularly bogged down by Victoria’s disciplined bowling, WA decided to play more aggressively as Hilton Cartwright led the way with a slew of fluent strokes.He combined with opener Cameron Bancroft, the leading run-scorer this season, in a steadying half-century partnership to provide hope for WABut Boland summoned one last burst before stumps and bowled Bancroft, who inside-edged onto his stumps attempting a drive.Having already secured a home final starting on March 23, WA have so far been unable to match the intensity of a desperate Victoria who are locked in a fierce battle with second-placed Queensland for a spot in the decider.After a dreary opening day, where just 192 runs were scored in 91 overs, left-handed Harris provided a spark as he sped past his half-century.He was in imperious touch with sweet drives down the ground to dominate a weakened WA attack without regular quicks Joel Paris and Matt Kelly. Harris scored at a run-a-ball pace before out of nowhere being caught behind down the leg-side off seamer David Moody.It was essentially Harris’ first mistake in his 140-ball knock and the former Test player, who last played for Australia during the 2021-22 Ashes, knew he left a big score on the table.Harris was furious with the dismissal and shouted his disgust as he trudged into Victoria’s dressing room. But his wicket failed to halt Victoria’s momentum with in-form Matt Short, who has scored three tons in his last five innings, in glorious form.He drove beautifully down the ground to pounce on wayward bowling from WA’s quicks, who were unable to conjure menacing movement like their counterparts from the previous day.Short combined with 20-year-old Campbell Kellaway in a century partnership as Victoria eyed a massive first innings lead. After an uninspiring effort from WA’s frontline seamers, Cartwright sparked his subdued team with a terrific spell in the second session.Cartwright was selected as an allrounder for two Test matches in 2017, but rarely bowls these days. He had only bowled 4.4 overs in the Shield season before his six-over burst accounted for three wickets, including Kellaway for 64 off 167 balls. Cartwright triggered a slide for Victoria as Short’s brilliant 95-ball innings ended when he mistimed to mid-off.Victoria were left slightly disappointed at their vice-like grip on the contest being loosened, but they remain firmly in the box seat after Boland’s late heroics.

Fletcha Middleton’s unbeaten half-century leads solid Hampshire response

ECB Reporters Network06-Apr-2023Hampshire 119 for 3 (Middleston 56*) trail Nottinghamshire 185 (Moores 49*, Abbas 6-49) by 66 runsHampshire’s Mohammad Abbas produced his relentless best to help bowl Nottinghamshire out for 185 on their return to the LV= Insurance County Championship Division One. Pakistan fast bowler Abbas claimed 6 for 49 as he ripped out the Notts top order before coming back to deal with the tail.Only Joe Clarke and Tom Moores, with 47 and 49 not out respectively, stood up to Hampshire’s imperious attack, with James Fuller also picking up a pair of wickets.Championship debutant Fletcha Middleton then kept the response in order with an impressive 56 not out as Hampshire ended the day on 119 for 3 – 66 runs shy of Notts’ first innings score.Abbas has been a menace for Championship batters since arriving at Hampshire in 2021 – with wicket tallies of 41 and 50 coming at an average well under 20. But that hasn’t persuaded Pakistan to bring him back into their Test side for the first time since August 2021, with his exile coming after a run of indifferent form.But Pakistan’s loss has been Hampshire’s gain. All his attributes – nibbling the ball around with metronomic precision – are suited to the Ageas Bowl, especially in early April.It was therefore a surprise that Notts captain Steven Mullaney chose to bat first, although less so when Haseeb Hameed and Ben Duckett eased to 42 without loss before Abbas found his groove.Abbas ground through to his sixth over before Duckett pushed to first slip. Hameed – who has been dropped second ball of the match – prodded behind in the following over. Ben Slater and Steven Mullaney were both victims of Abbas, either side of Kyle Abbott finding Lyndon James’ outside edge to leave Notts 93 for 5.Abbas’ rest allowed Moores and Clarke to rebuild watchfully, although the latter played typically stylishly through the off side. It took 34 overs before James Vince moved away from his strike trio of Abbas, Abbott and Keith Barker, when he brought Fuller into the attack
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Fuller had Clarke caught behind in his fourth over before Liam Patterson-White was dropped first ball but caught soon after for a quickfire doubleAbbas returned to complete his five-for as Olly Stone was caught at the wicket and Luke Fletcher chipped to midwicket – it was Abbas’ third six-wicket haul for Hampshire. Moores closed in on a deserved half-century but in trying to come back for a second, last man Dane Paterson was caught short of his ground by a pinpoint throw from Vince on the boundary.In reply, Stone marked his Notts debut with a wicket with his ninth delivery, as Felix Organ was caught at second slip. Nick Gubbins followed in a similar fashion off Fletcher before Vince was bowled by a James snorter to see the hosts slump to 57 for 3.Middleton – son of former Hampshire player and current batting coach Tony – was making his County Championship debut, having impressed in a first-class match, against Sri Lanka Development XI, and the One-Day Cup campaign last season.Middleton had been battling at the other end but unleashed with a trio of boundaries in a Stone over to get over any potential nerves.On a pitch prepared by groundstaff brother Finn he looked in little bother has he was joined in an unbroken 62-run stand with Liam Dawson. He reach his fifty in 88 balls just before bad light pulled the players off seven overs early.

Spinner experienced “low back symptoms” during Ireland Test

ESPNcricinfo staff04-Jun-2023England spinner Jack Leach has been ruled out of the men’s Ashes after scans revealed he had suffered a lumbar stress fracture. Leach developed “low back symptoms” during the Test victory over Ireland at Lord’s and he will now miss the entire series against Australia.Leach was among in the 16-man squad for the first two Tests announced on Saturday, with England set to name a replacement “in due course” according to an ECB statement.Related

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Leach has been ever-present under Ben Stokes, with the captain trusting him to fulfil a more attacking role in the side. In 13 Tests, he had taken 45 wickets at 38.22, including a maiden ten-wicket haul in the win over New Zealand at Headingley last summer.The Somerset left-armer is also the only English-qualified spinner to have taken more than 10 wickets in the County Championship this season. Candidates to come into the squad could include Rehan Ahmed, Will Jacks and Liam Livingstone, all of whom made Test debuts in Pakistan over the winter, as well as the previously capped Dom Bess and Liam Dawson.Leach picked up 3 for 35 in the first innings against Ireland, but struggled for breakthroughs on the third day as Andy McBrine and Mark Adair put on a 163-run stand for the seventh wicket to help avert an innings defeat.Stokes also turned to Joe Root’s offspin at Lord’s, and one option for England could be to select another quick bowler and rely on Root for fill-in overs.England have already lost the services of Jofra Archer, following the recurrences of his elbow problem, and did not consider either James Anderson or Ollie Robinson for the Ireland Test due to minor injuries. Olly Stone is also currently sidelined, while Jamie Overton is recovering from a back stress fracture – although England’s pace stocks were buoyed this week by a five-wicket haul on debut for Josh Tongue.They hope to have Stokes available as an allrounder, as he continues to manage a knee issue, but Leach’s injury less than two weeks out from the start of the first Test at Edgbaston only adds to concerns around how to balance the bowling workload.

From equal pay for the women’s game to the ditching of Eton-Harrow fixtures at Lord’s

Osman Samiuddin26-Jun-2023The report ends with 44 recommendations to “transform the game’s culture and, in some cases, to redesign the systems that govern and operate cricket.” ESPNcricinfo picks through 10 of the more significant ones below.

A public apology

The very first recommendation the ICEC makes is for the ECB to issue an “unqualified public apology for its own failings and those of the game it governs.” The apology, it says, must “acknowledge that racism, sexism, elitism and class-based discrimination have existed, and still exist, in the game, and recognise the impact on victims of discrimination.”In particular, the report says, there needs to be a direct apology for the “ECB’s and the wider game’s historic failures in relation to women’s and girls’ cricket and its failure to adequately support Black cricket in England and Wales.”In response, the ECB issued an immediate and “unreserved” apology for anyone who has faced discrimination in the game.

Equal pay for the women’s game

Gross disparities in opportunity and reward between genders represents an important focus of the report. It recommends a “fundamental overhaul” of the pay structure for professional women cricketers, calling for equal pay (on average) at domestic level by 2029 and international level by 2030.It calls for international match fees between the England men’s and women’s teams to be made equal with immediate effect, commercial earnings for promotional appearances to be equal on average to the men’s team by 2028, as well as for the ECB to top up prize money wins at ICC events so they are in line with men’s winnings (until, the report says, the ICC makes these equal).At domestic level, the report wants women’s regional teams to be fully professionalised by the start of the 2025 season (as well as have rookie contracts in place a season earlier). The reports wants average pay and prize money to be equal to the men’s domestically by 2029, but across a gradated scale (50% by 2025, 75% by 2027 and 100% by 2029). They want women’s salaries in The Hundred to be equal to the men’s by 2025.

Overhauling school cricket and talent pathways

The report devotes considerable attention to a relatively narrow pathway that has, historically, struggled to tap into as broad a base of talent as possible outside of private, fee-paying schools. The report recommends overhauling the entire talent pathway to “make it more meritocratic, inclusive, accountable, transparent and consistent”.It specifically suggests that the ECB should, within the next year, put in place an action plan for state schools, calling for a re-allocation of ECB money at U14 level “with the aim of ‘levelling the playing field’… to ensure that there exists an equal pathway into professional cricket for the very large majority of the England and Wales population that attend only a state school”.The subsequent recommendation calls for counties to forego any direct costs they charge for participation in talent pathways for 2024-25, in a bid to reduce barriers to access for children from lower socio- economic and state school backgrounds. It also calls for financial assistance for other costs, such as that of travel and cost of equipment to this demographic.

A national T20 competition for state school teams

By the start of the 2025 season, the report wants the ECB to organise county and national-level T20 competitions for boys’ and girls’ (U14 and U15) teams from state schools. Wins at county level (U14s) would see schools progress to a national competition the following year (for U15s). This, the report says, should replace…

Ditch Eton-Harrow at Lord’s

… the annual Eton-Harrow games at Lord’s. The school game, between two of the country’s most elite private schools, has come to somewhat symbolise the exclusivity of the Home of Cricket in recent years. Last year, MCC had decided to remove the Eton-Harrow and Oxford-Cambridge university games from their annual schedule, only to U-turn after a group of members protested. For now, the fixtures remain on the annual calendar till at least 2027.”These two events should be replaced by national finals’ days for state school U15 competitions for boys and girls,” the report says, “and a national finals’ day for competitions for men’s and women’s university teams.”

A new, independent regulatory body

One of the report’s most radical recommendations is the creation of a separate regulatory body for cricket, completely independent of the ECB, within the next year. “The new regulatory body, not the ECB, should be responsible for investigating alleged regulatory breaches and for making decisions about whether to bring charges,” the report says, adding in a subsequent recommendation that such breaches should include anti-discrimination and safeguarding rules.Despite some progress, the report found there to be a lack of clarity and independence in the ECB’s “formal regulatory system”. In its dual roles as promoter and regulator of the game, it concluded the ECB’s potential for conflicts of interest was “irreconcilable” between its commercial considerations and reputation-preservation, against the need at times to take effective regulatory action. It was this conflict that stood out through the Azeem Rafiq racism case.

Cricket’s class barriers

“One of our big reflections over the last 18 months or so is that our understanding of lower socio-economic groups is not good enough,” the ECB acknowledges within the report. One of the bigger – but unsurprising – findings in the report is how little attention has been paid by the ECB to this inequity and inaccessibility, based on class, schooling and/or socioeconomic backgrounds. None of the various initiatives the ECB has undertaken over the years, the report concludes, have specifically targeted barriers to participation and progress on pathways based on class.As such, they recommend that “within the next 12 months, the ECB undertakes an in-depth examination of the class barriers that exist in cricket and develops a game-wide strategy to remove them”.

ECB should appoint a chief EDI officer

The report’s assessment is that greater EDI (Equity, Diversity and Inclusion) competence and expertise is needed with the ECB board and executive. It is essential, the report says, that there is an ongoing and mandatory programme of training and development of these competencies for the board and executive.”We recommend that, within the next six months, the ECB establishes an Executive-level Chief Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Officer role with a singular focus on EDI and puts in place sufficient resources to support EDI delivery.”We recommend that the Chief EDI Officer sits on the ECB Board for the short to medium-term and/or until there is improved performance across EDI outcomes.”

Put EDI front and centre of allocation decisions

In November 2021, the ECB suspended Yorkshire from hosting international cricket, as it came to terms with the full impact of Azeem Rafiq’s experiences of racism at the county. Three months later, following a change in leadership and swift internal reform, the suspension was revoked and the county staged two internationals last summer.That is used by the report as an example in which putting EDI at the forefront of an allocation decision “is a powerful tool to encourage and enforce compliance with EDI”. It thus recommends that the “ECB revises and clarifies its processes and criteria for allocating, suspending, cancelling and reinstating high profile matches to place greater emphasis on EDI. There is clear evidence that being allocated such matches, or having the right to host them withdrawn, is a powerful tool to encourage compliance with EDI”.

An open and transparent complaints policy

The report is unequivocal in its conclusion that the systems and processes cricket has in place for handling allegations of discrimination are unfit for purpose. The report found a difference in perception between those in power who generally believed the systems they operate were effective and complainants, who found those systems to be inadequate.The ECB, the commission found, did not appreciate the role of complaints within the broader context of the fight against discrimination and that the system is not “sufficiently victim-centred”.”We recommend that the ECB reports clearly, publicly and annually on complaints in the professional and recreational game, including numbers, overall outcomes and actions taken to address existing and emerging patterns of concern.”

Quick earns call-up ahead of Issy Wong, Danni Wyatt set for maiden Test cap

Valkerie Baynes21-Jun-2023Lauren Filer, the fast bowler described by England Women’s head coach Jon Lewis as bowling “with more pace than probably anyone in the country” will make her international debut in this week’s Ashes Test at Trent Bridge.At the opposite end of the career spectrum Danni Wyatt, who has played 245 white-ball matches for England, will earn her maiden Test cap against the Australians starting on Thursday.Filer, 22, was one of two uncapped players named in England’s initial squad of 15 for the Test alongside allrounder and Western Storm team-mate Danielle Gibson, who was overlooked for the final XI, as was Filer’s fellow quick Issy Wong, who made her international debut in the Test against South Africa in Taunton a year ago.Upon announcing the initial squad, Lewis also highlighted Filer’s ability to swing the red Dukes ball. Filer went wicketless during England’s three-day, red-ball warm-up match against Australia A on a slow, lifeless pitch in Derby last week, conceding 27 runs from eight overs in the first innings as left-arm spinner Sophie Ecclestone took 5 for 38 to reduce the opposition to 221 all out in the first innings. Australia A were 361 for 7 in their second innings, with Filer returning figures of 11-1-40-0 as the match ended in a draw.Kate Cross, who has played six Tests during her 73-match England career will spearhead the hosts’ seam attack, which has lost stalwarts Katherine Sciver-Brunt and Anya Shrubsole over the past 18 months, and now includes Lauren Bell, who made her international debut alongside Wong last year.Despite being part of the original Test squad, Wyatt played for England A last week during their warm-up against a senior Australian side and reached 37 off 46 balls before she was trapped lbw by Australia quick Darcie Brown.Alice Capsey and Alice Davidson-Richards were released from the Test squad on Monday to play for England A in their first T20 against Australia A at Loughborough today.England Women Test team: Tammy Beaumont, Emma Lamb, Heather Knight (capt), Nat Sciver-Brunt, Sophia Dunkley, Danielle Wyatt, Amy Jones (wk), Sophie Ecclestone, Kate Cross, Lauren Filer, Lauren Bell

He has been named Australia’s T20I captain for South Africa tour, and could also be in the running for the ODI job full time

Andrew McGlashan09-Aug-20232:25

George Bailey: Ideal world would have two captains, not three

Mitchell Marsh, Australia captain. It’s a phrase that would have appeared very unlikely a couple of years ago, but now the allrounder is preparing to lead the team in the T20I series in South Africa. He might also be a frontrunner for the role permanently heading into next year’s T20 World Cup, and perhaps for both white-ball jobs before long.Marsh is the first to admit that he made mistakes earlier in his career, but has reflected on his pride at not giving up in his ambitions of making a sustained success of international cricket, which last month included a remarkable return to the Test side with a century at Headingley.He could now start the home summer as the favourite for the No. 6 role ahead of his close friend Cameron Green, but the more immediate focus for him will be a first crack at international captaincy, and then playing a key role in the ODI World Cup in India. Marsh may also stand-in for Pat Cummins during the ODIs in South Africa, with the regular captain recovering from a fractured wrist.Related

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“It’s pretty crazy how it all works out,” Marsh told SEN radio after being confirmed as Aaron Finch’s replacement as T20I captain. “Very proud moment. Probably not something I’d ever thought I would do, but really looking forward to the opportunity of going to South Africa.”Marsh, who was an Australia Under-19 captain, previously relinquished the role at Perth Scorchers when he felt he couldn’t give it his full focus as he tried to return to national colours, and last year largely ruled himself out of the ODI job after Finch’s retirement – although national selector George Bailey believed that was Marsh not wanting the headlines – but nearly 12 months on, he is now much more secure of his standing.”Guess I’m very proud that I’ve stuck at it, and been through a little bit of adversity through my career – through my own fault, mind you – but [it’s] nice to be recognised in our group as a leader,” he added. “Think anyone who works hard and is driven to succeed in whatever field they are in, and they come up short, it can be bloody hard to be honest with you, and I’m really proud of the fact I’ve never really given up.Mitchell Marsh made a remarkable return to the Test side with a century at Headingley•Getty Images

“I’ve also [been] through those lessons learnt to enjoy every part of my life – the ups and downs – and try to take a lot of learnings from my failures, and understand that whatever you do in life – whether it’s cricket, sport, [or] business – you are going to fail, and it’s [about] how you deal with those failures. Hopefully that will help me with my leadership, and [in] trying to win a few games for Australia.”Marsh believes T20 cricket is the toughest format to captain, given the game can swing on very small margins, but he is looking forward to the challenge in South Africa. Although his appointment is only for that tour, he is now strongly placed to take the job full time and will a leading candidate to add the ODI format as well after this year’s World Cup, with Bailey saying a single white-ball captain would be the preference.”It’s certainly the hardest [format],” Marsh said. “I’ve gave up captaining the Scorchers… that was mainly around [when] I was really striving to play for Australia, and I didn’t feel like I could give it everything. It’s really hard to balance that. You’ve got to put a lot of time into getting things right tactically, but I’m really looking forward to the challenge and will have plenty of good people around me to help. I’ll lean on others, which has been a really important learning for me as a leader.”Staying fit for extended periods has previously been one of Marsh’s challenges. He opted to undergo ankle surgery last year which ruled him out of the BBL, and that is an issue which will need to be continually managed. But getting through three consecutive Ashes Tests was a big tick for him, albeit he did pull up sore at Old Trafford.”I’ll have to keep looking after myself and keep working with the great staff at Cricket Australia and the WACA, and make sure I can stay on the park as much as I can,” he said.Reflecting on how his Test career was revived in England, when he replaced the injured Green at Headingley, he added: “I probably spent a fair chunk of my red-ball career trying to bat like Steven Smith, Marnus [Labuschagne], Usman Khawaja – those guys that can bat for six hours – but ultimately that’s not who I am; that’s not me as a cricketer.”I don’t have the best defence, but I know when I’m in a really good frame of mind mentally and in an attacking frame of mind, that I can defend well and keep good balls out. Outside of that, I really want to play the way I want to play.”

Moises Henriques has also been confirmed as the state’s all-format captain

AAP01-Sep-2023Shane Watson and Michael Bevan have been called in as coaching consultants to help turn around New South Wales’ on-field woes as the state attempts to rebound from its lowest ebb in 84 years.Winless in the Sheffield Shield last season for the first time since 1938-39, Cricket NSW unveiled a raft of changes and a back-to-the-future mantra on Friday morning.Included in those is Moises Henriques’ confirmation as an all-formats captain, taking over from Kurtis Patterson after he was dropped for the final round of the Shield last summer.Henriques has captained NSW on 20 occasions in the Sheffield Shield in the past, but this appointment marks his first full-time ascension to the role.Watson and Bevan will both take on jobs as consultants to coach Greg Shipperd, who himself was rushed into the top job midway through last summer after the axing of Phil Jaques.Bevan, who is NSW’s leading run-scorer in Sheffield Shield history, will act as a batting coach, while Watson will provide mentoring and mindset coaching for players.Former Test bowlers Stuart Clark and Geoff Lawson have also been appointed selectors, joining Shipperd, NSW performance boss Greg Mail and David Freedman on the panel.”No one at Cricket NSW was happy with what happened last season and we have now taken steps to turn things around, with the aim to build consistent success,” CEO Lee Germon said.”All of these guys come with extremely accomplished resumes and they have NSW cricket and the Blues in their DNA. That will bring a renewed edge to our structure and the playing group.”The program is now being led by Greg Mail and Greg Shipperd and the playing squad, led by Moises (Henriques), have knuckled down in the off-season and are determined to challenge for titles.”Now, by bringing in the collective experience and world-class skills of Michael Bevan and Shane Watson, we have added to our off-field support structure.”NSW have already made on-field moves to turn around their form with all Sheffield Shield fixtures to be played in Sydney this summer with three at the SCG and two at the state’s new base at Olympic Park.NSW also endured their worst women’s season in history last summer, finishing sixth after their run of 24 straight finals was ended in the previous campaign.

Veteran seamer to move into full-time coaching with Middlesex’s back-room staff

ESPNcricinfo staff18-Sep-2023Tim Murtagh, the former Ireland seamer and stalwart of county cricket for 23 years, has announced he will retire from professional cricket at the end of the season.Murtagh, 42, has been named in Middlesex’s squad to face Warwickshire at Lord’s this week, where the club will continue their fight to stay in Division One of the County Championship, with one final match of the season to come against Nottinghamshire at Trent Bridge.If selected against Warwickshire, the match will be the 264th first-class appearance of his career, and his 91st at Lord’s, a venue where he confirmed his enduring class earlier this season by claiming the fifth ten-wicket haul of his career – including his 1000th wicket for Middlesex – in an emphatic nine-wicket win over Kent.However, having taken up a player-coach role at the start of the 2023 season, Murtagh is now set to move into coaching full-time, with a permanent role in the Middlesex back-room staff.”I’ve had these words mulling around in my head for around ten years, but now is the time to put them onto paper,” Murtagh said in a statement released by the club.”It’s with a great deal of pride and a tinge of sadness that I announce my retirement from cricket at the end of this season. Its finally time to hang up the speed menace boots (the irony is not lost on me) after an incredible 25 years of joy playing professional sport.”It’s been an incredible honour to have played for this great club since 2007 and I am grateful to everyone who made me feel instantaneously at home here. Right up to the present management in helping me transition out of playing this year. I still hope to play a big part in keeping us in Division One these last two weeks.”Moving forward I can’t wait to help the next generation of Middlesex cricketers live out their own dreams as I move onto the coaching staff and the next phase of my life.”Murtagh’s career wickets tally currently stands at 1341, including 951 in a first-class career that began at Surrey in 2000, before his switch to Middlesex in 2007.In between whiles, he played 75 matches across formats for Ireland, for whom he qualified thanks to his Dublin-born grandfather. His finest hour came in the last of his three Test appearances, on his home ground at Lord’s, when he secured the first-morning figures of 5 for 13 to bowl England out for 85, and book himself a place on the dressing-room honours board.Alan Coleman, Middlesex’s director of cricket, added: “Players like Murts come along so rarely … he is an absolute gem of a bloke, both on and off the field.”Whilst we’re sad that we won’t be able to call upon Murts’ skills on the field anymore, we’re thrilled that he will still be around the group and playing a leading role in continuing to develop the players we have here at Middlesex.”I’ve been hugely impressed with how quickly he has taken to coaching, and the impact he has had in a short space of time, and I am looking forward to seeing him develop these skills in the next chapter of his career.”

Australia captain in awe of extraordinary one-man fightback in Mumbai

Andrew Miller07-Nov-2023Pat Cummins hailed Glenn Maxwell’s unbeaten double-century against Afghanistan as “the greatest ODI innings that’s ever happened”, as Australia booked their place in the World Cup semi-finals thanks to an astonishing one-man fightback in Mumbai.Chasing 292 for victory, Australia had slumped to 91 for 7 in the 19th over, before Maxwell and Cummins came together in an unbroken eighth-wicket stand of 202 – a record partnership that was made all the more remarkable by Maxwell’s near-incapacitation with cramp midway through his innings.With Cummins holding up an end for his unbeaten 12 from 68 balls, Maxwell cracked a total of 21 fours and 10 sixes in his 128-ball stay, including a succession of extraordinary swats across the line as he trusted his eye to clear the ropes while his legs were unable to move.On several occasions, it seemed he might be forced to retire hurt, with Adam Zampa padded up on the boundary’s edge to replace him, but Maxwell regained sufficient mobility to finish the chase in glorious fashion – with a volley of six, six, four, six off Mujeeb Ur Rahman, the last of which allowed him to become the first Australian, and ninth man overall, to reach 200 in an ODI innings.Asked how he was feeling after his exertions, Maxwell said at the Player-of-the-Match presentation: “Horrific! I feel shocking! It was obviously quite hot when we’re fielding today, and I haven’t really done a whole lot of high-intensity exercise in the heat, and it certainly got a hold of me today.”We came out with a plan to stay at the same end for a little bit until I could get some movement back, and luckily enough I was able to stick it out to the end.”Having already made a World Cup-record 40-ball hundred against Netherlands, Maxwell played down his performance, partly because he required a significant slice of early fortune before he could produce his match-turning knock.He arrived at the crease in the ninth over to face a hat-trick ball from a pumped-up Azmatullah Omarzai, and duly survived a review for lbw after edging a pinpoint delivery off the line of his off stump, but required several further chances before he found his range.On 27, he successfully overturned an lbw appeal from Noor Ahmad that was shown to be slipping over the top of his stumps, but in the same over, he was badly dropped by Mujeeb at short backward square, a reprieve that would have left Australia down and out at 112 for 8.