Glenn Maxwell used all willpower and application to score an uncharacteristic unbeaten 82 yesterday. When Maxwell faced his 100th ball in the innings, it was his longest innings in international cricket across all formats
Australia's Glenn Maxwell during his unbeaten 82 against India on Day One of the third Test in Ranchi yesterday. Pic/PTI
Glenn Maxwell was one of the late arrivals at the Australian camp in Dubai. But the minute he strapped his pads and raced into the nets, the message from batting coach Graeme Hick was loud and clear: "Nothing outrageous, just find a way to keep the balls out".
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For the next hour, he barely swept, preferring to just control and test his mind by either smothering the spin going forward or playing off the back foot with a vertical bat. He missed a few and spooned a few till Hick finally yelled out ‘it’s time’.
Uncharacteristic innings
Over a month later, in Ranchi yesterday, Maxwell used all that willpower and application to score an uncharacteristic unbeaten 82. When Maxwell faced his 100th ball in the innings, it was his longest innings in international cricket across all formats.
This was not the million-dollar Maxi that was signed up by the star-studded Mumbai Indians. This was the Maxwell who had learnt to put a price on his wicket and has decided to trust his defence.
Maxwell deserves all the accolades for what he achieved on Day One in Ranchi. He shelved his favourite sweep shot for the entire 147-ball innings. He hit his first boundary after playing 57 balls, which is very much unlike the Maxwell everybody knows. That was also his first lofted shot, otherwise the ball was always played all along the carpet.
Keeping cool
A couple of weeks before the team was selected for India in January, even the national coach Darren Lehmann had given him no hope by stating, "we cannot pick a guy who has scored just one first-class hundred in the last two years".
But maybe Lehmann was unaware that there was another side to Maxwell — the disciplined, resolute, single-minded man who proved he can control his natural instincts and excel in the pressure cooker-like atmosphere of Test cricket.
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