Glenn Maxwell urges teammates to use crushing BBL final defeat as motivation for next summer

Melbourne Stars captain Glenn Maxwell lamented Ben Dunk and Marcus Stoinis could have ‘killed the game earlier’ after he presided over one of biggest chokes in Australian cricket history.

• Stars’ ‘greatest ever’ choke as Renegades make history
• Ratings: What on EARTH were they thinking?

Glenn Maxwell wouldn’t call it a choke.

But the Melbourne Stars captain couldn’t escape the fact his team crumbled in the worst possible way to lose what seemed an unlosable Big Bash final.

Maxwell was “pretty shattered” after his team raced to 0-93, chasing 146 for a first BBL title, before losing 6-19 to fall 14 runs short.

This one hurt for Stars chairman Eddie McGuire.

MORE CRICKET NEWS

ROASTED: Eddie McGuire cops social media treatment over collapse

SUPERMAN: Sri Lanka pull off remarkable, all-time victory

Conceding he probably would have batted first if he had his time over again, after choosing to bowl when he won the bat flip, Maxwell said the loss wouldn’t leave him any time soon.

“This will probably drive us next year, and we can use it as good motivation to go one step further,” he said.

“We were so close. For eight overs it looked like we were winners. It’s hard to take right now.”

Rather than point the finger at his batsmen, with five of the top seven failing to pass six after the solid start, Maxwell gave credit to the Renegades’ bowlers.

Marcus Stoinis and Ben Dunk put on 93 for the first wicket. Picture: AAP

He said his openers, Ben Dunk (57) and Marcus Stoinis (39) could have “killed the game earlier” because the chase was never as easy as it looked as the soft ball, good bowling and good fields turned up the pressure.

“With the way the game was going, the way they were throwing the ball in to the ground, getting the ball soft, it was going to be harder for a new batter to start,” he said.

“You could feel that on the boundary, we needed to kill the game a little bit earlier, go harder at the start while the ball was hard and just get ahead of the run rate.

“You can kill games in the power play when you are chasing scores like that, and 0-36 is great, but it was that sort of game, we probably needed to go harder. That’s all in hindsight.

“We didn’t get off to a flyer, they executed and were able to build up enough pressure to make it hard for us.

“We just couldn’t have a batter come in and do the job. It seemed like every time we had someone come in and take a risk they got out.”

How the other half live... The Stars’ cross-town rivals the Renegades celebrate. Picture: Getty

There were positives for the Stars, who finished on the bottom of the table last season and, with Maxwell in charge for the first time, came so close to the ultimate turnaround.

For so much of the final, Maxwell’s men did so much right too. But just not enough.

“I thought we did well with the ball, executed well, did everything right,” he said.

“And up until the 12th over (with the bat) I thought we were fine.

“I’m pretty shattered to be honest.”

Every Test, ODI, T20I, and BBL match live & ad-break free during play. SIGN UP NOW!

Originally published as Glenn Maxwell urges teammates to use crushing BBL final defeat as motivation for next summer