T20 World Cup: 'Sri Lanka can hopefully do the job for us,' says Glenn Maxwell

Australia all-round Glenn Maxwell credited Afghanistan for the fight they put up on Friday and also said he was hoping for Sri Lanka to "do the job for us."

Since Australia managed just a four-run win in their final Super 12s game in the T20 World Cup 2022, it did not boost their net run-rate. Meaning, their fate of making it to the semi-final now relies on the result of the game between Sri lanka and England on Saturday.

If England defeat Sri Lanka by any margin, Jos Buttler and Co will progress to the semi-final. A loss will make way for the hosts Australia to go ahead. New Zealand, the table-toppers of Group 1, on Friday became the first team to reach the semi-final of the T20 World Cup 2022.

"Afghanistan played really well, they struck the ball really cleanly. At the start, they put us under pressure in the powerplay. We were able to hold them back but then there was some pretty clean hitting towards the back end and gave us a bit of a scare. It was nice to have an impact in the field," said Maxwell, who did not bowl a single over against Afghanistan.

" knew I wasn't going to have much of an impact with the ball with the conditions they were. To have an impact is nice. During the day, it was quite slow and taking spin, it was holding up a little bit. It was quite hard to press the issue. We got to about the 12th over mark where we just had to put a total on the board to make sure we gave ourselves a chance of winning the game. Even though we were trying to go hard, they bowled extremely well in the last four overs," added Maxwell, who was named the Player of the Match.

Maxwell played a fine knock against Afghanistan that helped Australia to post 168 for 8 in 20 overs. The explosive batsman, who is known for throwing away his wicket with a rash shot, played a well calculated innings as he struck two sixes and six fours in his unbeaten knock of 54 off 32 balls.

"They executed their plans and it was hard to get away. We'll be following it (England vs Sri Lanka), we put ourselves in this situation, but hopefully Sri Lanka can do the job for us," said Maxwell.

T20 World Cup: Hoping for an upset from Sri Lanka, says Matthew Wade

The equation came down to 21 off the final six for Afghanistan and Australia's stand-in-skipper Matthew Wade handed the ball to Marcus Stoinis. The all-rounder was hit for two fours and a six but defended the total successfully and kept the defending champions alive in the tournament.

"We gave Stoinis the last over, to have the all-rounder bowl the last over is pretty nerve-wracking. I played him in IPL and I have seen him do it 3-4 times. But never felt entirely sure at any point. We will stay here tonight and watch the game tomorrow, we will be hoping for an upset.

"We put ourselves in this position from the get-go, we have been slow in this tournament and hopefully it doesn't cost us. David was very close to selection tonight and we are very hopeful they [David and Finch] will come through if we get there," Wade said after Australia's win in Adelaide.