Glenn Maxwell has featured for Australia in five ODIs and four T20Is since walking into the middle in Delhi during the World Cup at the end of last October. Nine innings, four out, four centuries, 597 runs at an average of 119.
The Beast is already hitting the numbers, then factor in a strike rate of 186 – a player scoring north of 11 is scoring a run of his own. In a way, his 120 off 55 balls against the West Indies in Adelaide on Sunday was his most perfect.
Relating to: Glenn Maxwell breaks T20 record in Australia’s win over West Indies
Even for a player who combined the art of batting with circus arts, this streak was unrealistic. Not just in terms of numbers but also in terms of context, every high point would have to reach the lowest point, making this impossible.
Just over a year ago, Maxwell split his leg in half so badly that his doctors had serious doubts about his professional career. His injury set him back until the World Cup and continues to trouble him now.
Coming into the World Cup group match against the Netherlands, Maxwell’s 2023 has consisted of a lack of body confidence, a disintegration of half a dozen matches, no runs to speak of and a golden duck in his final over. After forty balls he achieved the fastest hundred in history. A crucial 41 followed in the high-scoring win against New Zealand.
Two good plays, then the next setback: a scalp-splitting fall opened up on a concrete path on the golf course. He suffered a concussion, was out for a week and missed a match; People accused him of carelessness or drunkenness, but he was neither.
Maxwell’s comeback was absurd, an all-time epic against Afghanistan; It wasn’t in the humidity of Mumbai to salvage a lost cause that was in danger of reaching the semi-finals.
Cramps from these strikes hampered him for weeks, and he had little use for the bat in the knockouts. But after the World Cup final, Maxwell found the reserves mentally and physically to score 104 from 48 balls in the T20I against India and none of the title-winning team should have been asked to play. He turned another inevitable chase into victory.
So to date, after a second golf course accident, this time it was his fault: A hot day in the sun, without enough water and too much beer, led to the unlikely outcome of this ratio. It would be a particularly humiliating situation to end up in the backseat of an ambulance or on the front of the newspaper because of poor social decisions, especially to scare people away before the more benign cause of dehydration is known.
A different player might be too shy to express himself on the field, but that only fools the bowlers.
In essence, Maxwell’s innings had to start with disappointment; Despite being one of the most criticized Australian players, no one is more routinely dissatisfied with Maxwell than Maxwell. A normal starter for others, he struggled as he could not find the contact or clearances he wanted, even in the short span of four runs from six balls.
Then Maxwell clicked, just as he hit the first of eight sixes, something clicked and the spinner got down on one knee to bowl Akeal Hosein into the top tier of the east stand at Adelaide Oval.
From there it was perfection. Many players score quickly, but Maxwell’s range is different. He doesn’t just set up on the back foot and play baseball, although West Indies pacer Alzarri does that to Joseph. Although Joseph has one of these, he doesn’t just step forward and hit straight. It’s not just the button that sends Hosein on a hundred-meter journey.
His wrist movements reveal his devastating timing. He is on the bowling leg side of the pitch and bends his back knee, turns his foot flat and rotates his hip downward towards the offside side, creating space to go around the ball line. It seems odd, a stance that fails to generate power, until you see the ball fly backwards over square leg. Andre Russell wore this. There is width outside and when Romario touches Shepherd’s ball he reaches for it with every nerve in his arms, lying fully extended on one knee. He still cleared the extra protection rope.
Three sixes before his first four but his placement on the field is the most exceptional. Russell’s yorker is on the money, angled and off on middle, aimed at the woodwork, except for Maxwell slotting in another timber, the bat is vertical and untracked, there is no visible push, but instead of being defended the ball floats backwards for four. Intentionally confusing. West Indies captain Rovman Powell could only shrug: Any ball they bowled, he said, understatedly, “There’s a chance for him.”
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T20I hundreds are rare. Total of all Australia’s female players: five centuries. All men of Australia except one: five centuries. Glenn Maxwell: five centuries. The only player in the world to have this many is Rohit Sharma and this is due to 50 per cent more matches.
It remains a great shame that Maxwell has never scored a proper test in Test cricket and has never been to Australia. It may not work, but is a national body supposed to have such a unique talent and never try it? This is an indictment on the courage and imagination of a dozen years of voters.
The current national order is the structure most welcoming to Maxwell; His approach is no longer viewed with suspicion. It is supported impartially. He is a better player because he has that security from his team, his captains and his coach. But still only in short games.
Consider this support spread across Tests over several years. Maxwell has turned 35 but is playing the best cricket of his life. He could still do literally anything.