Australian allrounder Glenn Maxwell has put on the biggest show of his career in the three-wicket triumph over Afghanistan.

Struggling with back spasms and cramp, he made an unbeaten 201 in Mumbai’s Wankhede Stadium.

He has received plaudits from a long list of past and present players.

Australia captain Pat Cummins said “I think that’s the greatest ODI innings. I mean I’ve ever seen it’s probably the greatest ODI innings ever”.

“It’s just incredible the amount of control and how cleanly he hits it for the amount of different shots he has. So, you just sit there and admire it. And it looks so easy. And he hits a four, and you’re like, oh, of course he’d hit a four. But you try and do it yourself and you have no chance.”

Former Indian great VVS Laxman described it as “one of the greatest individual performances on a cricket field”.

Former New Zealand wicketkeeper Ian Smith said: “I’ve never seen anything like it. I doubt I’ll see anything like it again. I don’t know if there are any other cricketers in the world who could do what he did.

“At one stage he played like he had no legs, he just had arms and a will.

“It’s right up there with 2019 and that great game of cricket,” he added in reference to the game being reminiscent of the World Cup final.

Here are the facts and figures surrounding his record-breaking knock.

Australia’s first one-day international double century. The highest ODI score by an Australian men’s batter before was the 185no by Shane Watson against Bangladesh in 2011.

Only the third double century ever at a men’s World Cup. West Indies star Chris Gayle set a record of 215 against Zimbabwe in 2015 before watching New Zealand’s Martin Guptill top it with 237no against his side later in the tournament. 

Only the ninth man to make an ODI double hundred, of which there have only ever been 11 in total. Maxwell made Australia only the fifth nation represented on that list – India with seven from Rohit Sharma, Sachin Tendulkar, Virender Sehwag, Ishan Kishan and Shubman Gill, while Fakhar Zaman hit 210 not out for Pakistan against Zimbabwe in 2018. 

The fastest World Cup double hundred – off 128 balls. Gayle took 138 balls to reach the landmark and Guptill 152. Kishan narrowly held on to the fastest-ever ODI double, in 126 balls against Bangladesh last year. 

Maxwell hit 10 sixes to go with 21 fours. Only Guptill, with 24 fours and 11 sixes in his 237, has scored more runs in boundaries in a World Cup innings. 

Maxwell and captain Pat Cummins, who contributed 12 runs to a lop-sided partnership, set a new eighth-wicket partnership record in ODIs with their unbroken 202, which destroyed the previous record – an unbroken 138 between South Africa’s Justin Kemp and Andrew Hall against India in 2006. Australia’s previous best was 119 between Paul Reiffel and Shane Warne against the Proteas in 1994. 

It was the first 200 stand for any wicket from the seventh downwards.

Mitch Marsh’s 24 was the second-highest score as Maxwell racked up 68.6 per cent of Australia’s runs in the innings. Only West Indies great Sir Viv Richards has ever scored a greater share of his team’s runs in a completed ODI innings, 189no in a total of 9-272 against England in 1984 (69.5 per cent).

LIST OF HIGHEST SCORES IN ODIs
264 – Rohit Sharma, India v Sri Lanka, Kolkata, 2014
237no – Martin Guptill, New Zealand v West Indies, Wellington, 2015
219 – Virender Sehwag, India v West Indies, Indore, 2011
215 – Chris Gayle, West Indies v Zimbabwe, Canberra, 2015
210no – Fakhar Zaman, Pakistan v Zimbabwe, Bulawayo, 2018
210 – Ishan Kishan, India v Bangladesh, Chattogram, 2022
209 – Rohit Sharma, India v Australia, Bengaluru, 2013
208no – Rohit Sharma, India v Sri Lanka, Mohali, 2017
208 – Shubman Gill, India v New Zealand, Hyderabad, 2023
201no – Glenn Maxwell, Australia v Afghanistan, Mumbai, 2023
200 – Sachin Tendulkar, India v South Africa, Gwalior, 2010