Glenn Maxwell: The ravager who scorched Netherlands' hopes with a blistering ton

It was sheer carnage from the Australian cricket team as they laid waste to Netherlands, sculpting a record 309-run win in the 24th match of World Cup 2023. The main man for Australia to lead the bloodbath was RCB’s very own, Glenn Maxwell. After a slow and controlled start, Maxi shifted gears in no time and rocketed off to a rampaging ton that shattered the record of the fastest century in the ODI World Cup (40 balls), leapfrogging the previous mark held by Aiden Markram (49 balls).

Maxi’s carnage started with a couple of back-to-back boundaries against Bas de Leede, who was forced with the infamous record of conceding the highest number of runs in an ODI with 115 coming from 10 overs. However, the actual carnage was still to arrive. If people thought that Maxwell’s actual onslaught was scoring 50 off the first 27 balls, they were in for a shocker.

The real carnage began after he got to that first fifty. He launched de Leede to the stands for the first maximum after his half-century which was just the overture for the glass-shattering crescendo to follow suit. From thereon, almost every alternate delivery was flying to the stands as the boundaries became the invisible axis of planet earth that we have heard about only in our books.

The 49th over bowled by de Leede went for 20 runs within the first four balls. The first ball rocketed to the sweeper cover fence, with the following delivery dispatched with extreme prejudice to the long-off fence. The third ball of the over was belted to the cow corner region after Maxi picked up a fuller delivery nice and early, and the next shot was a strong pull shot behind square.

The fifth ball of the over was a chest high full-toss or somewhat of a beamer and Maxi thumped it over fine-leg to shatter Markram’s record of scoring the fastest century in the ODI World Cup. The final boundary that came off Maxi’s bat was from the back of his blade that skewed past the keeper after a miscued reverse paddle.

He finally was dismissed for 106 from just 44 balls as Engelbrecht grabbed a tough take in the deep with Maxi going out wide after a delivery that was going farther away from him. However, by the time Maxwell was done with his onslaught, Netherlands were already razed down to the ground by the dynamic right-hander’s strokeplay.