Big Bash: Incredible hitting performance from Glenn Maxwell leads Melbourne Stars past Renegades
Glenn Maxwell has continued his ferocious assault on Big Bash bowlers, his incredible big-hitting display for the Melbourne Stars making a mockery of the winless cross-town rival Renegades’ total.
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Glenn Maxwell is more than just the big show, he’s the absolute best show in town.
The Melbourne Stars skipper lit up Marvel Stadium with an outrageous six-hitting display that included a seventh to win his team’s seventh game and hand the Melbourne Renegades an eighth straight loss.
When Maxwell walked to the wicket the Stars needed 115 to win, with 79 balls to get them, after a late collapse of 5-22 in the final four overs left the red men stranded on 7-168.
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With 10 overs left, the Stars still needed 96, and Maxwell slowly made his way to 12.
The run rate kept climbing and hit 12 when the green team still needed 60 off the final five overs.
But the “Max factor” loomed large, and even the WinViz had the Stars a 79 per cent chance of victory.
First Maxwell, and batting partner Nick Larkin, took to Joe Mennie, each smashing a maximum in the same over to keep the run rate in check.
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But it was two scintillating sixes off Englishman Richard Gleeson, off the first two balls of the 17th over, which set pulses racing, and set the Stars on the path to another win.
Next over Maxwell iced the game, taking down his opposing skipper Dan Christian with two more massive heaves which were almost too much too believe.
The second one reached the second tier of th egrandstand with such ease that it seemed a forgone conclusion form the moment Christian bowled it.
A chase that seemed lost early was over with and eight balls to spare, and all because of Glenn Maxwell who smashed six sixes in his final 20 balls to close out a stunning victory.
GO WITH YOUR GUT MAXI
Maxwell told Stars coach Dave Hussey he thought he got it wrong when he bowled spinner Sandeep Lamicchane in the 17th over at the MCG on Wednesday. It wasn’t part of the original plan and he went for two boundaries. Hussey disagreed and told Maxwell to back his gut, so he did and bowled the Nepalese spinner in the 17th over again. He snared the crucial wicket of Beau Webster first ball and only went for six runs. It stopped the Renegades momentum and helped give the Stars 20 less runs to chase.
TARGET MISSED BUT STILL A HIT
He didn’t top 150kmh, which is his target, but Stars speedster Haris Rauf left his imprint on the derby in an even better manner. His fastest ball was just 146kmh but in his last over, the last of the Renegades innings, Rauf conceded just two runs, took a wicket, and bowled four dot balls to a bamboozled Will Suthlernad who couldn’t get bat on ball. Rauf has 14 wickets, just one less than BBL leader Daniel Sams.
BEAU KNOWS SIXES
Lanky Tasmanian Beau Webster is having his best ever Big Bash and is letting his state teammates know all about it via the team’s WhatsApp group. He’s got the sort of long levers that are perfect for launching sixes, but strangely has only cleared the rope six times in 21 one-day games for Tassie. In his eight BBL games this season however he’s doubled that hitting a team high 12, with two against the Stars, including one which almost hit the roof, after four maximums on Tuesday in Geelong.
HARPER BATTED WHERE?
Renegades batsman Sam Harper was his team’s high scorer last game at Geelong smashing 73 off 46 balls when he opened with Aaron Finch as his team scored a season-high 175. But with Finch gone, the men in red opted for an all new opening team, and Harper, listed to come in at number three, didn’t bat until seven. He got to face one ball, the last of the second last over, and was out, caught at mid-on. That looked a waste of one of the bottom team’s better performers.
Originally published as Big Bash: Incredible hitting performance from Glenn Maxwell leads Melbourne Stars past Renegades