Just as Australian cricketer Glenn Maxwell's double century clinched a near-impossible win for the Australian team during the 2023 ICC Men's Cricket World Cup, cricket fans on social media celebrated the player's performance.
Before Maxwell's batting, Australia stood at 91 runs against seven wickets in the second innings, chasing a target of 291 runs, set by Afghanistan.
The claim: When the match ended, social media users shared posts calling Maxwell cementing his place as the "first Australian player to score a double century in ODI (One Day International) history."
News organisation Hindustan Times also shared this claim in their article.
An archive of this post can be seen here.
(Source: X/Screenshot)
(Archives of more claims can be seen here and here.)
But...?: Maxwell is the first male Australian cricketer to achieve the feat.
The first Australian player to score more than 200 runs in an innings during the World Cup is former cricketer Belinda Clarke, who scored 229 runs in 1997, coincidentally also in Mumbai.
How did we find out?: Using relevant keywords, we looked for reports on the 'firsts' of scoring 200 or more runs during ODI matches in cricket world cups.
This led us to a 2010 report by India Today, which mentioned former cricketer Sachin Tendulkar as the first male player to score a double century.
It mentioned that Australian player Belinda Clark had been the first ever player to cross the 200 runs mark in 1997, playing in Mumbai, against the Danish cricket team.
Clark and Tendulkar are the first female and male players to score more than 200 runs at ODIs.
(Source: India Today/Altered by The Quint)
Taking a cue from this, we looked for more details about Clark.
A simple keyword search led us to the website of ESPN Cricinfo, which carried details of the match between the Australian and Danish cricket teams, held in Mumbai on 16 December 1997.
It showed that during that match, former Australian cricketer Belinda Clark scored 229 runs off 155 balls and was not out.
Clark was the first person to score over 200 runs undefeated in 1997.
(Source: ESPN Cricinfo/Altered by The Quint)
Clark was also named 'Player of the match' after scoring the first ever double-century in ODI cricket.
The International Cricket Council had shared a post on their official X (formerly Twitter) account in 2020, regarding Clark's historic feat.
We also came across several websites such as Sportskeeda and Cricket Australia, which carried the same information, mentioning Clark as the first Australian person to score a double century in ODI world cup cricket.
Conclusion: The first Australian player to score over 200 runs in an innings during a World Cup match is former cricketer and captain of Australian team Belinda Clark, not Maxwell.
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