World Cup 2023: 'They start a bit of bickering, infighting', Glenn Maxwell reveals how he learnt Afghanistan's traits

For Glenn Maxwell, his knock against Afghanistan in the 2023 Cricket World Cup did not come easy. From Australia reeling at 91/7, Maxwell pulled off a miracle to help the five-time champions chase down 292 against the Afghans. Maxwell was battling cramps during his knock and batted repeatedly on one foot, as he scored an unbeaten 201 off just 128 balls. World Cup 2023: News | Schedule | Results | Points table Maxwell came in with Australia in trouble at 49/4 in the ninth over. Azmatullah Omarzai was on a hat-trick that over, having taken the wickets of Josh Inglis and David Warner, and Maxwell recalled that missed hat-trick moment.

“I had nicked it and didn’t believe it didn’t carry to the keeper. I tried to stare blankly and not look guilty. But I saw them running around the batters a lot. I hoped they’d make a couple of emotional decisions, and burn a few reviews early. And if a few close lbw calls went against them, it could take a toll on them and I could start playing on their emotions,” Maxwell said in a conversation with Adam Gilchrist and Michael Vaughan on the Club Prairie Fire podcast. Although Maxwell was dropped while batting on 24 and 33, he was well aware of the match situation. “Earlier all I did was play one reverse sweep against Noor Ahmad to make sure deep backward point became a little bit finer, and I knew they had to have mid-off back at some stage. They wouldn’t take mid-wicket out if they wanted to bowl a leggie. “ So with the sweep I created a gap either side of mid-off, both sides of cover and over the top. As soon as I got it wide outside off, I could use my hands through gaps. I was setting up even dot ball to get those boundary gaps,” the 35-year-old added. Maxwell said that he knew that if he had started playing some shots every one or two overs, that would lead to some “infighting” among the Afghanistan players. “The energy that they had in the first 15-20 overs was extraordinary and we have seen that a lot from them. I have played (against) a lot of sub continental teams and one thing I have always found that if you could take the sting out of the game, not by runs but by basically being there, you play one or two shots in every couple of overs and you can see how flat it starts to get." “They start a bit of bickering, infighting, finger-pointing, arms-raising, fielders not paying attention, it sort of starts to unravel,” said the Melbourne-born cricketer. Australia have qualified for the semi-finals of the World Cup and will face South Africa in Kolkata on 16 November.