Australia 417-6 (Warner 178) beat
Afghanistan 142 (Mangal 33) by 275 runs
World Cup, 26th Match Pool A at Perth
Scorecard | Highlights

David Warner scored a smashing daddy hundred as Australia put up an intimidating batting performance to defeat Afghanistan by a mammoth 275 runs at WACA, Perth, the biggest margin of victory in World Cup matches.

Like UAE earlier in the day, Afghanistan won the toss and strangely elected to field first on a flat batting surface.

They were in for a long day after the initial success of getting Aaron Finch (4) early, in just the third over.

Steve Smith (95) was promoted to number three, his best batting position in terms of average, as Shane Watson was dropped in favor of James Faulkner (7) who had sufficiently recovered from his side injury.

Smith added a massive 260 for the second wicket with Warner (178) who played a menacing knock of just 133 deliveries, pummeling 19 fours and five sixes.

Warner looked in scintillating form intimidating the Afghanistan bowlers with his strokeplay and was severe on the pacers especially, scoring 126 from 76 deliveries against them.

Warner was set for much more than a double-hundred, but threw away the opportunity.

He was dismissed by Shapoor Zadran (2-89) off a slightly slower delivery, a skier that was taken well by skipper Mohammad Nabi (0-84) who had an especially bad day with the ball himself.

Another batsman who threw away a record was Glenn Maxwell (88) who played a splendid 39-ball knock, getting out needing just 12 off 10 deliveries to break Kevin O’Brien’s record for the fastest World Cup century scored in 50 deliveries. 

Michael Clarke kept demoting himself in favor of the big hitters and they justified his call by pinching Afghanistan for 117 runs in the last 10 overs.

Australia surpassed India’s tally for the biggest total at a World Cup, scoring 417 for the loss of six wickets.

Hamid Hassan (1-70) was the most economical of the bowlers who had completed their quota, while Javed Ahmadi (0-18) had the lowest economy rate, bowling four frugal overs.

Afghanistan’s sole target might as well have been to avoid the biggest One-Day International and World Cup defeat ever.

While they managed the first target bringing the deficit to 275, they couldn’t achieve the second goal.

This is the biggest loss by run margin at the World Cups and the second biggest in all ODIs.

Afghanistan started off respectably but lost both openers in successive overs to Josh Hazlewood (2-25) and Mitchell Johnson (4-22).

The biggest partnership of the game was for the fourth wicket when Afghanistan’s best batsman of the tournament Samiullah Shenwari (17) added 48 with Nawroz Mangal (33).

However, the Afghanistan batsmen had no answer for the pace and swing generated by the Australian bowlers and were eventually dismissed for 142.

There was a DRS moment too, when snicko failed to register a clear edge from Mohammad Nabi (2) who had reviewed the decision but was given out.

For Australia, Johnson had a happy outing just missing a five-wicket haul.

Mitchell Starc (2-18) and Hazlewood did their reputation no harm by picking couple of wickets.

Even Maxwell (1-21) and Clarke (1-14) added to their wickets column.

All in all, it was a dampening day of cricket for Afghanistan who didn’t bowl or bat badly by the standards of associate nations, but were victims of an Australian team in rampaging form.

© Cricket World 2015