Glenn Maxwell opens up about his blockbuster knockout, saying, “I told Pat that I was going to try and control last five overs”

At Arun Jaitley Stadium on Wednesday, Glenn Maxwell wrote history by being the player to score the quickest century in ODI World Cup history. To ensure that the more than 18,000 spectators at the Arun Jaitley International Stadium saw something incredible they will never forget, Maxwell hammered the Dutch bowlers all over the field. As Maxwell lit up the stadium with a 40-ball century, it was undoubtedly a “Big Show.”

Maxwell amassed 106 runs throughout his innings, hitting eight sixes and nine fours to help Australia record a massive 399/8 and win the match by 309 runs. It was generally anticipated that the Netherlands, who have so far dominated the 2023 World Cup, may not go down without a fight, but on Wednesday they were struck by the Maxwell freight train and never really recovered.

In the 40th over of the innings, Maxwell stepped out to bat and quickly found his rhythm. In 27 balls, he reached his half-century. That was just a trailer, however, for he blew through his following 50 trips with only 13 deliveries.

When Maxwell was on 75 with two overs remaining and News18 CricketNext questioned him whether he was thinking about reaching a century, he said at the press conference that controlling the next five overs was the plan, and he wasn’t thinking about reaching the milestone.

“I wasn’t really thinking about it.” Attempting to farm the strike for the back end was my plan. There were, I believe, five overs left, and I promised Pat that I would do all in my power to dominate the next five overs. In the press conference after the game, Maxwell said, “If I got it on a run, I thought there was no point in taking singles because it might just be a single back and forth where I could get a bunch of balls in a row and hopefully find some hitting.”

With a waist-height no-ball delivery, the 35-year-old achieved a maximum over square leg and crossed the triple-figure threshold. In Bas de Leede’s penultimate over, he blasted 28 runs – 4, 4, 6, 6, 6nb, 1, 0.

It was also his first score of 50 or more in the previous 16 innings, making history.

Speaking further about his knock, Maxwell revealed his mentality as he took aim at the Dutch bowlers, who also gave him a few full tosses that ended in sixes.

“I believe that on a field like that, you may make mistakes if you can exert pressure on a particular bowler or anybody else and manage to get a hold of them a few times in a succession. In the 49th over, I thought I had done it. His excellent balls were under pressure from me, and when he received terrible balls, I was able to smash for sixes. That must have been merely my back-end strategy. I guess there was a decent possibility I was going to score 100 since I was fortunate enough to have a few of full tosses at the end,” he said.