Australia huffed and puffed, but they managed to defeat Afghanistan in their final Super-12 game in the T20 World Cup. Australia survived a late onslaught from Rashid Khan to keep the Afghans away by just four runs on Friday, 4 November. Australia took 2 points in the game, but they could have done without a narrow margin of victory on the night. The defending champions, after putting up a total of 188 runs, needed to restrict Afghanistan to 106 if they wished to have a better run rate than England in the Group – 1 of the tournament.
Glenn Maxwell was the hero for Australia on the day, slamming a rapid half-century as the rest of the batters faded away against the Afghan bowling attack. Speaking after the match, Maxwell rued the position that they had put themselves in and said that they have no choice but to wait for the result of England vs Sri Lanka.
“Yes, it certainly did. Afghanistan played really well. But we did well in the end to get two points. They started well, and in the back end, a few clean hits by them gave us a big scare. Yes, it was slipping a bit, and the dew was coming, so doing well in the field gives me good confidence. It was a nice effort. Yeah, we have put ourselves into this situation, and now we have to sit and watch the next game. We have nothing more than hoping a Sri Lankan win tomorrow and hope that they do the job for us,” Maxwell said in the post match presentation.
Australia will be knocked out of the tournament if England win against Sri Lanka in their final Super-12 game. Sydney will be hosting the match between the two teams, where only England have a chance to get through to the semi-finals in the 2022 edition of the tournament.
