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Courage Personified: Reliving Glenn Maxwell's Immortal Cramp-Wracked 201* In 2023 WC

Soumyajit Dutta

Glenn Maxwell [Source: @FoxCricket/X]Glenn Maxwell [Source: @FoxCricket/X]

As Glenn Maxwell announces his retirement from ODI cricket on June 2nd, 2025, one inning transcends all others in his explosive career, the superhuman, cramp-ridden, match-winning 201* against Afghanistan at the 2023 World Cup. 

For every spectator, the feat was not an ordinary double ton, but a feat of endurance, audacity, and sheer willpower that defied belief and rewrote history.

Maxwell's Unbelievable Against Afghanistan

Chasing 292 at Mumbai's Wankhede Stadium, Australia's hopes lay in ruins at 49/4. Then entered Maxwell and what followed was pure theatre. Initially fluid, his innings soon became a battle against his own body. 

Gripped by excruciating cramps that spread from his toes up his shins, into his calves, hamstrings, and finally triggering a back spasm, Maxwell crumpled to the ground on 147. Agony was etched on his face. Retirement seemed imminent.

"It was a strange one... I was like full body in pain," Maxwell confessed later, describing the moment his legs locked and his back seized. 

He consulted physio Nick Jones, contemplating withdrawal with 55 runs still needed. But the stakes – a World Cup semi-final spot – and his own indomitable spirit prevailed. He chose to fight, reduced to hopping, grimacing, and swinging with only "arms and a will," as commentator Ian Smith observed.

The Dismantling Of Afghanistan In A Pain-Forged Body

What unfolded next was cricketing alchemy. Hobbling, often unable to run, Glenn Maxwell resorted to an astonishing display of boundary-hitting. He farmed the strike masterfully from partner Pat Cummins (in a record 202-run stand), launching sixes and finding gaps with uncanny precision despite his physical prison. 

Legs failing, his bat produced magic, 21 fours and 10 sixes flowed, many struck from a near-static position. "We were just chatting about it... we’ve decided it’s one of those days where you just go, ‘I was there in the stadium the day Glenn Maxwell chased down that total by himself’," captain Cummins declared, anointing it "the greatest ODI innings that has ever happened."

The Hero That Fought With Will And 'No Legs'

The climax was cinematic. Needing victory, Maxwell, barely able to stand, clobbered Mujeeb-ur-Rahman over deep midwicket for six. He finished 201 not out – the highest ODI score by an Australian, the first and only double century in a run-chase, dragging Australia home by 3 wickets from the abyss and sealing the top 4 spot in the tournament.

Ricky Ponting, Australia's one of the greatest skippers, dubbed the innings played 'on no legs'. Ponting stated, "I have played a lot of cricket, and I have watched a lot of cricket, but I have never seen anything like this."

Today, as Maxwell steps away from ODIs, this immortal, cramp-defying masterpiece in Mumbai remains the defining, unrepeatable zenith of Glenn Maxwell's extraordinary career, a knock where pain forged legend and willpower conquered the impossible.