Australian captain Pat Cummins has set social media alight after he responded on X (formerly Twitter) to a post by the 7Cricket account.
Following Maxwell’s batting heroics where he pulled off one of the greatest ODI innings in history to lead Australia to a miracle World Cup victory over Afghanistan, 7Cricket published a graphic celebrating the greatest eighth-wicket partnership in ODI history.
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”Partnership batting from Maxwell and Cummins. Know your role, play your role #CWC23,” 7Cricket wrote.
The graphic also showed that out of their 202 stand, Cummins had made just 12.
This seemed to tickle Cummins’ fancy who decided to jump into the conversation.
“A lot of credit should go to Maxi, he played his role beautifully,” Cummins wrote with tongue firmly in cheek.
But not even Cummins could have imagined the response to his amusing Maxwell slap-down.
The comment has gone completely viral with over 2 million views at the time of writing.
It has also had over 50,000 likes and more than 755 comments.
Maxwell’s innings has been dubbed the ‘Miracle in Mumbai’. It has also been lauded as the finest ODI innings of all-time, smashing 201 from 128 balls to help Australia chase down the 291 total.
The jaw-dropping performance is even more incredible when you think that he seriously considered retiring hurt with his body riddled with cramp.
In fact, the cramping in both his legs was so bad that Maxwell struggled to move properly and at one point he was flat on his back.
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“It was a strange one because I was cramping in one of my toes which was going up the front of my shin,” Maxwell said.
“And then as I set off to get down the other end, I was cramping in that calf as well. So I was cramping both sides of my lower leg.
“And then as I went down with ‘oh, I’m cramping’, I cramped in my left hamstring at both times.
“So I have both legs, and then a back spasm at the same time.”
Such was Maxwell’s limited movement, teammates compared his running to that of Olympic walker Jane Saville.
Australia at one stage walked Adam Zampa down the boundary rope to replace Maxwell with 10 overs and 60 runs to go, but the Victorian opted to stay on the field.
“It was certainly in our discussions,” Maxwell said.
While Maxwell was the obvious hero, fans were to quick to remind Cummins that he played a vital role in the victory.
On fan said: “Apart from Maxwell’s brilliance, it’s important that Cummins also gets recognition for his knock. 12 off 68 might not look good on paper, but it was extremely important in the context of that partnership. Plus not to mention you got the best seat to watch that carnage.”
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While another said: “Mate you were outstanding too … 68 balls in that situation, (you) were like a wall.”
And another: “Naah bro, your contribution today was very much important. You played well.”
And another said Cummins played the “greatest supporting role in an ODI match” with his 12no of 68 balls.
That may be up for debate, there was no debate about ‘The Big Show’.
His innings was immediately rated among the greats with Ricky Ponting declaring in commentary he had never seen anything like it.
Sachin Tendulkar also labelled it the best ODI innings he had ever seen, as did Adam Gilchrist and former England captain Michael Vaughan.
Maxwell himself said he still needed time for it to sink in before judging where it ranked.
– With AAP
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