Men’s ODI WC: Ponting wishes for Maxwell’s astonishing knock to inspire Australia to trophy glory

Pune: Two-time Men’s ODI World Cup winning captain Ricky Ponting said he wishes for Australia to take immense faith from Glenn Maxwell’s astonishing 201 not out off 128 balls against Afghanistan and use it as an inspirational moment to win their sixth title.

Australia were reeling at 91/7 in a run-chase of 292 at the Wankhede Stadium when Maxwell joined hands with Pat Cummins to put on a match-winning 202-run stand. The skipper contributed only 12 runs as Maxwell took centre stage, battled cramps in calf, shin, hamstring and toes while battling bad back to single-handedly win the match through smashing the greatest ODI innings of all time.

“All the great teams that I’ve played with and all the great teams that I’ve been around have always had that belief that they can win from anywhere, and literally anywhere, even World Cup campaigns that I played in.”

“We had games where we probably shouldn’t have won, but someone was there with that belief to put their hand up and win the game. And that’s what I talk about with Australia in World Cups.”

“They’ve got this knack of being able to just win the big moments and today was a huge moment as they qualify for the World Cup semi-finals now and hopefully onwards and upwards for them,” Ponting was quoted as saying by ICC.

At Mumbai, Maxwell also became the first non-opener and very first person from Australia in men’s ODIs to make a double hundred. The come-from-behind victory over Afghanistan was Australia’s sixth win on the trot at the World Cup and as of now, are slated to meet South Africa in the semi-finals next week.

“I have been around a lot of games playing and calling and I have never seen anything like that, and I’ll be very surprised if I see anything like that ever again. It was the most remarkable thing you’ve probably ever seen in cricket.”

“Ben Stokes’ Test innings to win it (third Ashes Test in 2019) at Headingley was something that I had never seen before and I think this one goes past that just for the sheer enormity of what it means for the Australian cricket team making the World Cup semi-finals,” concluded Ponting.

–IANS