Maxwell's sensational double century powers Australia into semifinals
Mumbai, Nov 7: Battling pain and exhaustion, Glenn Maxwell conjured arguably the greatest knock (201 not out off 128 balls) in the history of limited overs cricket to singlehandedly propel Australia to a sensational three-wicket win over Afghanistan in the World Cup here on Tuesday.
With this, Australia became the third team to enter the semifinals.
Opting to bat, opener Ibrahim Zadran became the first Afghanistan batter to score a World Cup hundred and guided his team to 291 for five.
In reply, Australia were down and out at 91 for seven in the 19th over. That's when Maxwell decided to take charge and led an incredible comeback while adding 202 runs for the eighth wicket with skipper Pat Cummins (12 not out), who watched the mayhem unfolding from the other end.
In all, Maxwell smashed 21 boundaries and 10 sixes.
Earlier, Zadran carried his bat through the innings and finished on 129 not out off 143 balls.
Afghanistan lost opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz for a 25-ball 21 but Zadran and Rahmat Shah stitched 83 runs for the second wicket to lay a good foundation before the latter was dismissed by Glenn Maxwell for a 44-ball 30 in the 25th over with the score reading 121.
Unperturbed by the loss of few wickets at the other end, Zadran continued to accumulate runs at a decent rate to prop up his team against the five-time world champions.
Rashid Khan smashed unbeaten 35 off 18 balls towards the end.
Brief scores:
Afghanistan: 291/5 in 50 overs (Ibrahim Zadran 129 not out; Josh Hazlewood 2/39).
Australia: 293/7 in 46.5 overs (Glenn Maxwell 201 not out).
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Jharkhand civic polls: 12 pc voter turnout recorded in 48 ULBs till 9 am
Ranchi (PTI): Around 12 per cent voter turnout was recorded till 9 am in the civic polls to 48 urban local bodies in Jharkhand on Monday, an election official said.
Voting, which commenced at 7 am, is underway amid tight security. It will continue till 5 pm, he said.
"Voter turnout of 12 per cent was recorded till 9 am. Polling is underway peacefully," State Election Commission (SEC) secretary Radhe Shyam Prasad said.
Over 43 lakh voters are eligible to decide the fate of 6,000-plus candidates.
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State Election Commissioner (SEC) Alka Tiwari exercised her franchise at ward number 40 in Ranchi.
"Polling is underway peacefully across the state and reports are so far good from every ULB. I would like to appeal to the voters to exercise their franchise," Tiwari told reporters.
Prasad said the elections are underway for the posts of mayor and chairperson in 48 ULBs, and councillors in 1,042 wards across nine municipal corporations, 20 nagar parishads and 19 nagar panchayats.
As many as 562 candidates, including 235 women, are in the fray for the posts of mayor and chairperson, while 5,562 candidates, including 2,727 women, are contesting the posts of ward councillors.
Prasad said adequate security arrangements have been made in all the booths.
A total of 4,307 polling booths have been set up for the elections. Of these, 896 have been identified as hyper-sensitive and 2,445 as sensitive.
