Bang, bang, Maxwell's silver hammer

In the Beatles‘ song, Maxwell Edison, ‘majoring in medicine’, wields a silver hammer and goes on a killing spree. Ozzie batter Glenn Maxwell went on a killing spree of his own at the Wankhede Stadium against giant killers Afghanistan. Blitzscoring an unbeaten 201 runs off 128 balls – 21 fours and 10 sixes, just a wee behind Ishan Kishan’s 24 fours and 10 sixes in a monster knock of 210 in 131 balls against Bangladesh last year – this Maxwell swung his weapon to beat back another underdog upset.

The hammer-and-tongs aspect of limited-overs cricket is sometimes written off as being slapdash by the cognoscenti. But with Australia teetering at one point with 91/7 in 18.3 overs, the Afghan score of 291/5 looked like the Hindu Kush. To keep one’s head, while playing his ‘trademark’ dramatic improvs, made Maxwell not the bangers and mash purists get stiff upper-lippy about, but a display of controlled destruction. Making a double century in a 50-overs game is fab enough. Only 11 cricketers to date, starting with Maxwell’s country-mate Belinda Clark in the 1997 Women’s World Cup against Denmark, have made it to the 200-club. His 202-run partnership with Pat Cummins also means a heroic stand by the pace bowler who scored an unbeaten, stoic 12 off 68 balls. But Maxwell’s innings was a true bang, bang.