Glenn Maxwell looked broken. He was crawling on his knees between overs, gasping in pain, but his spirit remained intact. The Aussie kept swishing his bat around to score an unbeaten 201 to script possibly the greatest ODI knock of all time. It was certainly the greatest innings in a World Cup chasethe one that dealt a heartbreaking blow to Afghanistan.
The tournament’s giant-killers had reduced Australia to 91/7 while chasing 292. After beating England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, they had another former World Champion in their stranglehold and only the formality of pulling the trigger remained. But, in a game for the ages, the hunter became the hunted as a limping Maxwell carried his team across the finishing line.
Maxwell’s double hundred was a throwback to Pakistan’s Saeed Anwar’s epic 194 against India in the 1997 Independence Cup. However, unlike Anwar, Maxwell didn’t have the luxury of the now-scrapped rule of allowing an injured batsman a runner. The 35-year-old willed his beaten body to cross over for singles. He even collapsed to the ground once, but, grimacing in pain, he stood up. He couldn’t bend his legs, or stretch his body, but his hands were in a frenzy, as they kept carting the ball around the park, and crashing Afghanistan’s hopes.
“I hadn’t done much high-intensity exercise in the heat. It was quite hot during the day, and it certainly got to me today,” Maxwell would say later. He remained modest: “It would have been nice to say it was chanceless, but I led a charmed life, was dropped a few times. There have been occasions when I have been dropped and didn’t make the most of it, so to make the most of it is probably the most pleasing thing.”
When his past is placed in context, “making the most of it” has to be one of the greatest understatements out there.
During the 2019 World Cup in England, Maxwell was in hospital after being hit by a bouncer in the nets. Struggling for runs, he was frustrated. Such was his frame of mind that he hoped the injury was serious. “I thought it would be my ticket out of disappointment,” he would later say. “I felt like I was 100 per cent to blame (for the failure of the team). I would look around the dressing room and wonder about others thinking ‘If only Max had turned up for this tournament’.”
Unlike four years back, on Tuesday, Maxwell was willing to push himself through the pain barrier. The reverse-laps, switch-hits, and slog-sweeps came out with a hobbling body barely able to stand. Not many, if any, would have thought Australia could win the game after Afghanistan’s bowlers had scalped early wickets with the new ball.
Even Maxwell had given up, when he began walking towards the dressing room after taking a DRS against an LBW call against wrist-spinner Noor Ahmed. The giant-screen replays had confirmed his worst fear, that the ball had landed within line of the stumps. But technology gave him a reprieve by showing the ball was bouncing over the stumps.
There was another stroke of luck when he was dropped by Mujeeb ur Rahman at short fine-leg. A smile spread across Maxwell, who yanked his head towards the sky. Did he think at that point that this could be done? “It kick-started my innings,” he would later say.
At that stage, Australia were still miles away from even glimpsing the final line. Physically, Maxwell looked drained, but showed no sign of being stressed or anxious. He hasn’t always been strong mentally.
Maxwell had once opened up about his mental demons in a podcast. During the last World Cup, he had a meltdown. He spoke about being in a room with his then fiancée, now wife, Vini Raman, when he broke down. That was because he was named in the team that was to play England in the semi-final. Maxwell said he wasn’t in the right frame of mind to take the field.
Most Read
After he returned from hospital for the England game, the Aussie coaching staff wanted to test him. Maxwell was thrown into an intense net session. “I was on a few painkillers and I had JL (Justin Langer, the then coach) and Ricky Ponting (batting consultant) just bounce the crap out of me to see if I was ready to go … I sort of blank-faced … I just wanted to get through the rest of this tournament.”
Five months after the incident, he told the world he was suffering from depression and took a break. He was put on to sports psychiatrist Ranjit Menon, an external consultant for Cricket Australia. Speaking to The Indian ExpressMenon had refused to go into the specifics of Maxwell’s case but shone a light on the broader theme. “The pressure of living up to potential can make athletes’ lives feel like a perpetual missed opportunity and trigger an abiding sense of loss. Even when Maxwell was fielding, he says, ‘I would be off with the fairies’.”
From being barely able to get through the World Cup last time to becoming Australia’s saviour, Maxwell has come a long way. The dressing room and the Aussie fans would now be thinking: “Thank God, Max has turned up for this tournament.”
