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A screen grab of Glen Maxwell. (cricket.com.au)
At one point of time, Melbourne were in trouble as the score read 55/2 when he walked in to bat. The misery continued and the team was left in tatters at 82/5. The situation demanded a calm, calculated effort. Maxwell being Maxwell, attempted an upper cut and a dab over off side. On both occasions he failed miserably. The Victorian quickly altered his strategy. With run rate languishing below 6, he had to improvise.
His first boundary came through a delicate upper cut off Brendan Doggett. Maxwell then continued to rotate strike till the 16th over. With Faulkner just walking into bat, 'The big show' had to take the risk. It was then he hit a flat six over bowler's head, and followed it with a slash over the head of third man for a boundary.
It was his innings that propelled the Melbourne Stars to a respectable total of 141/7. Maxwell was dismissed for 50, and just 26 off them came in boundaries. Initially, Maxwell was struggling to find the middle of the bat. At one point he looked frustrated, and looked like throwing his wicket away — which he is guilty of doing for a number of times in his international career — but he chose to persevere. Wickets fell around him but he hung on, quite a rare sight for Maxwell fans.
But his innings went in vain as Brisbane made short work of that target. But the kind of form Maxwell showed in this game, could be a bad news to other teams in the competition.
First Published: January 2, 2018, 5:56 PM IST