Glenn Maxwell's Incredible One-Legged Heroics Power Australia into World Cup Semi-Finals

Glenn Maxwell has a propensity for acting inconceivably. He suffers a concussion after slipping and falling off the back of a golf cart, breaks his leg when his former school teacher falls on him while they are playing some backyard horseplay at a friend's birthday party, or plays one of the greatest innings in cricket history by standing literally on one leg and hitting 201 not out off 128 balls.

Maxwell has a powerful blend of charm and mayhem.

His actions often defy logic and reason, and his drooping eyelids give his small physique a tinge of sadness. Sometimes, before arriving at the goal, one has the impression that he doesn't know where he is going. It may go horribly wrong (he didn't smash a single six in 13 IPL games in 2020), or it could be an incredible feat that verges on the extraordinary. As he did in Mumbai on Tuesday, when he bowled Australia out of the Mariana Trench-like depths with three wickets to spare against a shell-shocked Afghanistan to secure their spot in the World Cup semi-finals. He did this even though he was only using one leg due to cramping.

Australia joined India (16 points) and South Africa (12 points) in the round of sixteen with 12 points remaining and one match remaining.

As he approached the crease, the Australians were down at 49/4. They were chasing a difficult 292/5, set by the tenacious Afghans, in only the ninth over of the match. Maxwell was unsteady at first and made many escapes.

When he was 27 years old, Noor Ahmad delivered him leg-before. After reviewing it, he began to return to the pavilion, believing that the ball would have bounced past the stumps, but the replays proved him wrong. His botched sweep was tossed for a dolly at short fine leg, where Mujeeb Ur Rahman shelled it, in the same over. Then, he was on 34. Perhaps realizing that fortune would be on his side in this duel, Maxwell grinned impishly and changed into a completely different giant after that.

Using his bat like a butcher's knife, he began ruthlessly eliminating the Afghan onslaught, making a variety of shots, some of which are beyond description.

The Aussies on the other end were toppling over like a set of nine pins. By the 19th over, they were down to 91/7 and facing a humiliating defeat, with the Afghans hardly able to contain their enthusiasm for a historic victory that would have also greatly improved their prospects of making it to the semi-finals.

But the Afghan bowlers utterly lost the plot even as Maxwell succumbed to cramping, hardly able to play a shot without his face contorting in agony. With little mobility, Maxwell just planted his front foot and sent the Afghan bowlers flying over the field.

With 12 not out in 68 balls, captain Pat Cummins offered quiet backing to Maxwell. They had an unprecedented 202-run partnership for the ninth wicket.

Maxwell set a new record in the winning chase, scoring 68.6% of his team's total.

Consider 21-year-old Ibrahim Zadran, who scored his nation's first-ever World Cup hundred with 129 off 143 balls. Max-storm blew away a nice knock.