Glenn Maxwell yesterday hit an unbeaten half-century to keep Australia in the hunt for the semi-finals of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup with a tense four-run win over Afghanistan.
Hosts and defending champions Australia now need archrivals England to lose their against Sri Lanka today to make the semis.
Maxwell’s 32-ball 54 lifted Australia to 168-8, a total their bowlers defended by restricting Afghanistan to 164-7 at the Adelaide Oval.
Photo: AP
Rashid Khan hit an unbeaten 48 off 23 balls to make a fist of the chase and he smashed 16 runs off the final over from Marcus Stoinis to keep the home crowd on edge almost right to the end.
Australia lost skipper Aaron Finch and Tim David to hamstring injuries and dropped pace bowler Mitchell Starc before being invited to bat first.
Naveen-ul-Haq rocked Australia’s top order with the wickets of David Warner, for 28, and the returning Steve Smith, for 4, in one over. He returned impressive figures of 3-21.
The left-handed Warner came out firing to smash spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman for three straight boundaries in the second over of the match.
He lost fellow opener Cameron Green off Fazalhaq Farooqi, who took two wickets, in the next over, but kept up the attack with Mitchell Marsh, who hit 45 off 30 balls.
Naveen bowled Warner and four balls later the fast bowler trapped Smith leg before wicket.
Marsh attempted to hit back with a six and two fours off Gulbadin Naib, but failed to build on it and he fell caught behind to Mujeeb’s mystery spin.
Maxwell and Stoinis then got going against the Afghanistan bowlers, only for Rashid Khan to break through.
Stoinis smashed Rashid for a six over midwicket, but soon departed for 25 as Afghanistan kept chipping away.
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