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Watch: Maxwell spotted popping a pill before walking out to bat; illness similarity with de Villiers in record century
Glenn Maxwell did an AB de Villiers by battling overnight illness to smash a record-breaking century in World Cup.
If a big hitter is feeling unwell before walking out to bat then beware... A few records might break. A wounded tiger being more dangerous is expected but the cricket World Cup is showing that an ill tiger is probably more dangerous. Don't believe us? Just got to YouTube and search AB de Villiers's century against the West Indies in World Cup 2015. Want a more recent example? Look no further than what Glenn Maxwell did on Wednesday.
De Villiers had a stomach problem on the eve of the match. He could not sleep the entire night and had to take an injection on match-day to turn and play. The outcome? The fastest 150 in ODI history. De Villiers finished with 162 off 66 balls to South Africa to 408.
Eight years later, it was Maxwell doing the same thing. Before walking out to bat against the Netherlands in a World Cup 2023 match in Delhi, Maxwell was unwell. He wasn't even sure if would be able to bat but he not only did he bat but he also rewrote the history books in what can be described as one of the most destructive innings in World Cup history.
The Australia all-rounder smashed eight sixes - the joint second most by an Aussie in a World Cup match along with Adam Gilchrist and Ricky Ponting - to reach his third ODI century off 40 balls - the fastest-ever in World Cup history. Maxwell took just 13 balls to go from 50 to 100. He brought out a full array of switch hits, reverse sweeps and scoops to leave the Netherlands bowling clueless.
After his astounding 106 off 44 balls, ICC shared a video that showed Maxwell popping a pill just before walking in to bat at the Arun Jaitely Stadium.
"Yeah, not great. I've been pretty cooked all day. I was sitting in the changing room and I didn't really want to bat, which is a bit different than last game where I was way too eager to get out there. And then we talked about over-arousal levels and I probably reached double maximum if you couldn't tell. But yeah, I was a little bit more chilled when I got out there. Didn't have many high hopes, I think. But yeah, I've been pretty cooked the last couple of days. Coincided with the sleepless night last night with the family over but – Yeah," Maxwell told reporters after Australia registered the biggest win in World Cup history by 309 runs.
'No point in taking singles': Maxwell
All eight of Maxwell's sixes came in the last five overs of the Australian innings. The all-rounder, who was not in the best of forms before this match, said he told captain Pat Cummins - the non-striker - that would take charge of the closing stages of the match to try and maximise the run-scoring.
"I was going to try and farm the strike for the back end. I think it was about five overs to go and I told Pat that I was going to try and control the last five overs as much as I possibly could. If I got it on a run, I thought there was no point in taking singles because it might just be a single back and forth where I could get a bunch of balls in a row and hopefully find some hitting.
"I think on a ground like that if you can put pressure on a certain bowler or anyone and get a hold of them a couple of times in a row, you can produce mistakes, you can produce errors. I felt like that was what I did in the 49th over. I was able to put pressure on his good balls to get bad balls, where I could actually hit for sixes. So, I suppose that was just my tactics at the back end. I was lucky enough to get a couple of full tosses at the back end, which highlighted, I suppose, there was a pretty good chance I was going to get 100," he said.
