Adelaide:Glenn Maxwell hit a quickfire fifty but Afghanistan pulled things back nicely in the final five overs to limit defending champions Australia to 168 for eight in a must-win T20 World Cup match here on Friday. Maxwell made an unbeaten 32-ball 54 that included six boundaries and two hits over the fence after Afghanistan invited Australia to bat. Australia lost Cameroon Green early but David Warner (25 off 18) and Mitchell Marsh (45 off 30) kept up the run rate up with their fiery strokeplay.
But two quick wickets in the sixth over in the form of Warner and Steve Smith saw the hosts slump to 52 for 3 in the powerplay. While Warner was bowled by a Naveen-ul-Haq off-cutter as the batter went for an extravagant switch hit, Smith was adjudged LBW three balls later.
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Marsh then top-edged Mujeeb Ur Rahman (1/42) while going for a slog sweep and Rahmanullah Gurbaz took a fine high catch to sent the batter packing as Australia were reduced to 86 for 4 in the 11th over. Glenn Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis (25 off 21) then joined hands and shared 53 runs off just 29 balls for the fifth wicket as Australia surged ahead.
While Maxwell looked in ominous form, cutting, pulling and lofting Afghan bowlers over the boundary, Stoinis struggled with his timing. Stoinis had just two sixes during his 21-ball knock before he handed a simple catch to Usman Ghani at backward point off Rashid Khan.
Stand-in captain Matthew Wade too didn't trouble the scorers much as he was cleaned up by Fazalhaq Farooqi's toe-crushing yorker. From 133 for 4 in 15 overs, Australia kept on losing wickets to lose the momentum as Maxwell found boundaries hard to come by after a promising start. Maxwell brought up his fifty off 29 balls with a four off Farooqi in the final over and found the fence again in the last ball to finish the innings on a high. Naveen-ul-Haq (3/21) and Farooqi (2/29) were the most successful bowlers for the Afghans.
