Glenn Maxwell Credits 'Freedom To Play' For Thrilling Performance Against England

Glenn Maxwell made his return to the Australia limited-overs squad for the England tour memorable by playing a match-winning knock in the ODI series decider on Wednesday. It also helped the visiting Australian side clinch the series 2-1 after their loss in the T20Is against host England.

Maxwell stepped in a position when Australia were reeling at 73/5, chasing a total of 303 runs. He played a blistering knock of 108 runs off 90 deliveries and was well supported by wicket-keeper batsman Alex Carey (106) as they forged a match-winning stand of 212 runs for the visitors. The all-rounder said that his side had nothing to lose and thus he played with freedom and took on the bowlers.

“I was probably thinking that we haven’t got much to lose so I had a bit of freedom I suppose to try and take the bowling on and put a bit more pressure on them,” he told reporters.

“I thought if I could make the most of that short boundary as much as I could early on and just back my bat swing. There was a fair bit of a breeze heading that way as well so I just tried to get it up in the air and I was able to get a couple pretty clean early on in the innings and then hopefully start to build a partnership with Alex.

“I knew once I started to get into the innings they would start to bowl a bit differently to me and I might be able to cash in on some loose balls, but everything pretty much went to plan.

“The way our partnership built was outstanding so it was good fun out there and I’m really happy to get that result.”

His knock comes at the right time as Maxwell is set to join the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) franchise on Thursday. The Australian will be one of the key overseas player in the side, to be led by KL Rahul, along side Chris Gayle, Chris Jordan and Mujeeb ur Rahman.