Ashes 2017/18: Discarded Glenn Maxwell Responds with Career-Best 278

Nov 25, 2017 at 3:53 PM

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Ashes 2017/18: Discarded Glenn Maxwell Responds with Career-Best 278

Australia’s Chairman of Selectors Trevor Hohns on Thursday morning asked Glenn Maxwell to go and pile some runs in the domestic circuit and on Saturday afternoon, the swashbuckling all-rounder walked off the ground after hitting a sensational 278 which was also his first double century in his first-class career.

His devastating knock was studded with 36 fours and four hits over the fence. Courtesy his knock, Victoria Bushrangers reached a comfortable position at 478/4 against the New South Wales Blues who has been unbeaten in the competition so far.

Maxwell was brought in as a cover for David Warner and Shaun Marsh who were under injury clouds, but once they were deemed fit, Maxwell got released from the squad which allowed him to smash the sensational innings. Maxwell is well aware of the fact why he was dropped from the squad, as Hohns explained it was the lack of runs which led to his axing along with Hilton Cartwright’s.

“Both those fellas were spoken about, and we came up with the fact that they haven’t performed well enough in the early rounds of the competition this year,” Hohns said last week after Maxwell struck only 200 runs in the first 3 Shield Games.

“We just feel that Shaun Marsh … has performed much, much better and demanded to be chosen.”

 

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – NOVEMBER 24: Glenn Maxwell of Victoria bats during day one of the Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Victoria at North Sydney Oval on November 24, 2017, in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)

Maxwell got some further feedback from Hohns in Brisbane this week.

“I spoke to ‘Cracker’ briefly after the warm-up once the team had been announced,” Maxwell said after his 257-ball innings. “He wanted me to go back and make hundreds. That was pretty simple.”

Maxwell replied with a laugh and said he has been trying,

“I said, ‘I’ve been trying!’ They’re not talking about technique changes or anything like that, it was just, ‘go pile on some runs’. 

Maxwell was sublime all around the wicket and punished anything which was full and short and there to be hit. The NSW bowling attack consisted of four bowlers with Test experience, but Maxwell was at his demolishing best and made the bowling attack look clueless.

Despite his highest first-class score, Maxwell was equally proud of spending a career-best six hours at the crease.

 

SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA – NOVEMBER 25: Glenn Maxwell of Victoria celebrates after reaching 250 runs during day two of the Sheffield Shield match between New South Wales and Victoria at North Sydney Oval on November 25, 2017 in Sydney, Australia. (Photo by Jason McCawley/Getty Images)

“Today was a giant step forward for me in this format. I trusted changes I’ve made in the pre-season and I think I’ve slowly made progress throughout the year. Last week against Tassie, I started to show that a tightened defence was starting to work for me and, starting my innings today (Friday), that was my focus.”

Maxwell was first picked as a specialist limited-overs player, but he has insisted in the past too he is at his best in the longest format of the game. His increase focus and defensive technique came in handy during the series against India early in the year where he struck a four hour-Test century.

“I feel like I’ve been building towards an innings like this. I knew that there’d be a little bit of panic set in the longer I stayed at the crease. It’s happened ever since I started my career – the longer I stay at the crease, there’s more loose balls I can go after.

“I just played the ball on its merits – if it was full, I drove it, if it was short I pulled it or cut. That’s the thing I was most pleased about as well. I was in a really good technical frame of mind the whole day, and I didn’t miss the middle too much.

“My technique is starting to become a lot more repeatable which I think, going back a year, it wasn’t. I was probably looser and didn’t switch on for as long. It was just a really comfortable time out in the middle for me. I was almost in that state of trance where batters get to that stage where they can almost be on auto-pilot.”

Glenn Maxwell said Australian players should look up to Indian batsmen’s to see how spin should be played and also should learn from it.

Also Read: (Ashes 2017/18: Steven Smith Stitches Highest Average as Test Batsman in at least 100 Innings)

(Ashes 2017/18: Watch: Mitchell Starc’s Brutal Bouncer Shatters Joe Root’s Helmet)

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