Pitch and weather: The Wankhede has been a batting paradise in the World Cup so far with first innings scores of 399, 382 and 357 posted already in the tournament. Mumbai is set to be very hot with temperatures touching 37 degrees, and the air quality will also be a concern.
Australia vs Afghanistan Highlights 2023, ICC CWC 2023 39th Match, Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, Tuesday 7-11-2023.
Shahidi: We will hope the wicket will spin and seam in the second innings. We’re chasing well, but you have to look at the opposition and ground also. Sachin is a legend of the game and we are excited to learn from him. One change: Naveen in for Farooqi.
Cummins: It [Losing the toss] doesn’t affect our plans too much. It’s fine. Happy with how we’ve gone – five in a row. Long may it continue. Smith was struggling a bit [in the lead-up to the game] and misses out. Green misses out too. Mitch Marsh and Maxwell are back. We have plenty of bowling options. We will be fine.
Toss: Afghanistan chose to bat.
Australia team: 1 Travis Head, 2 David Warner, 3 Mitch Marsh, 4 Marnus Labuschagne, 5 Josh Inglis (wk), 6 Glenn Maxwell, 7 Marcus Stoinis, 8 Pat Cummins (capt), 9 Mitchell Starc, 10 Adam Zampa,11 Josh Hazlewood
Afghanistan team: 1 Rahmanullah Gurbaz, 2 Ibrahim Zadran, 3 Rahmat Shah, 4 Hashmatullah Shahidi (capt), 5 Azmatullah Omarzai, 6 Mohammad Nabi, 7 Ikram Alikhil (wk), 8 Rashid Khan, 9 Mujeeb Ur Rahman, 10 Naveen-ul-Haq, 11 Noor Ahmad
Head to Head In ODI’s: 3
Australia Won: 3
Afghanistan Won: 0
Australia ODI Rankings: 2nd
Afghanistan ODI Rankings: 9th
Form guide
(last five completed ODI’s, most recent first)
Australia WWWWW
Afghanistan WWWLW
Match Timings: 8:30 AM GMT | 2:00 PM Local
Umpires – Alex Wharf, Michael Gough
TV Umpire – Chris Gaffaney
Match Referee – Jeff Crowe
Reserve Umpire – Sharfuddoula
Match number – ODI no. 4696
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2023 Fixture
ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 Points Table
ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2023 Squads
Post Match Presentation
Hashmatullah Shahidi:
Very disappointed, cricket is a funny game. It was unbelievable for us. We were in the game, our bowlers started really well. The dropped chances hurt us at end of the day, we missed those moments and after that Maxwell didn’t stop, credit to him. I think that catch was the key point. After that, he played really well, he had all the shots and didn’t give us any chance. Our bowlers tried their best. Proud of the team; team will be disappointed tonight but it’s part of the game. We will try our best to come stronger in our next game against South Africa. Ibrahim Zadran must be proud of himself. I am also proud. He is the first Afghan player to score a hundred on World Cup.
Pat Cummins:
Ridiculous. Don’t know how to describe it. Great win! It has got to be the greatest thing that has ever happened. One of those days people will say yeah, I was at the stadium for this game. He always had a plan. Even from 200 behind to be able to win the game that way, it was really special. It is important to remember you can win from anywhere. Real belief in the team and we are in the semi-finals now, that’s great.
Glenn Maxwell, Player of the Match:
It was obviously quite hot when we were fielding today. I haven’t really done a whole lot of high intensity exercise in the heat and it certainly got a hold of me today and just luckily enough we came out with a plan to stay at the same end for a little bit until I could sort of get some movement back, luckily enough I was able to stay till the end. It was basically to stick to our batting plan. I suppose for me it was still trying to be positive, still trying to take them on and trying to produce bad balls or something else I could score off.
Even with the lbw, that was just going over the top, that was probably the kick-start I needed to sort of tell myself to start playing my shots and be a bit more proactive. I think you obviously saw a little bit more swing and nip around under lights as it always happened throughout this tournament. Credit to them, they bowled absolutely beautifully upfront and put us on the back foot. What we struggled to do was take early wickets and put them under pressure, but credit to them, they bowled really well upfront.
I feel like I had those types of innings before where I was given the chance and I haven’t made the most of it so to make the most of it is probably the most pleasing thing, to be not out with Patty at the end is something I am really proud of. I think after the first two games everyone was pretty quick to write us off and to come back and win six straight now is a great effort from this group. The belief is always there to win a game like tonight, hopefully that belief spreads through the change room.
