Maxwell’s 10th six sealed Australia’s incredible win over Afghanistan in the World Cup semi-finals after finishing with an extraordinary double century.

Vaughan, the former England captain, said: “You are probably going to hear people say it’s the greatest innings of all time.”

There was nothing like that I had ever seen before. Australia had no right to win that game.”

Australia were 49-4, set 292 to win, when Maxwell faced an Azmatullah Omarzai hat-trick ball and just about survived.

The score then dropped to 91-7 for Australia. In addition to being dropped twice, Maxwell also left the field on 27 before, much to his surprise, he was reprieved after opting to review when given out lbw.

As soon as Mujeeb Ur Rahman spilled the second of those catches, neither Afghanistan’s bowlers, nor his back and cramp issues that left him in agony, were able to stop Maxwell.

He wasn’t able to run with 100 runs needed, and by the time it reached 75, he couldn’t move fast enough to play a shot.

It didn’t really matter. His hand-eye coordination and ball-striking were near-perfect as he finished with 201 not out off just 128 balls. That was higher than his World Cup century off 40 balls against the Netherlands last month.

In a one-day international, Maxwell was the first batsman to make a double century while chasing and the first non-opener to do so.

During an unbeaten stand of 202 with Maxwell, Cummins contributed 12 runs, calling it “the greatest ODI innings ever”.