… Kushan Sarkar…
New Delhi, November 8 (Language) Glenn Maxwell, who single-handedly led Australia to victory in the World Cup match against Afghanistan in an almost lost match, has a long-standing love for golf, which also benefited him in this match. Despite being injured against Afghanistan, the kind of sixes he hit without moving his leg was similar to the swing of golf players. Maxwell likes to play golf as an amateur but his hobby at one time became fatal for his career. He was seriously injured while playing golf in the lawn of his friend’s house. After this injury, he could not be a part of the Australian Test team on the India tour. He had understood that it would be difficult to make a place in the Test team at the age of 35 and he focused his entire attention on limited overs cricket. Upon his return from injury, many people had doubts about Maxwell’s power hitting as before but he scored more than 400 runs in 14 matches at a strike rate of more than 183 in the last season of IPL. He had shown a glimpse in the IPL itself that he would fully enjoy the conditions in India during the World Cup. Maxwell has been playing golf and tennis since childhood and due to this his hand-eye coordination has been excellent. Despite straining his leg muscles during his unbeaten innings of 201 runs in 128 balls against Afghanistan, he hit many sixes with the help of his hands, the style of which was like a golf swing (shot). A golfer uses the strength of his arms and upper body without moving his legs when he hits the ball a distance. Former Pakistan captain Misbah-ul-Haq has also seen Maxwell play golf. “Maxwell’s swing (golf shot) is 400 meters (distance),” he said on ‘A Sports’. However, during this historic innings for Maxwell, Afghanistan’s fielders and bowlers also performed poorly. He got two lives during this period and the bowlers gave him the opportunity to play big shots easily by bowling over pitch. Shoaib Malik in ‘A Sports’ program said that Afghanistan’s spin bowlers do not bowl flighted balls and Maxwell took advantage of this. He said, “Most of the Afghanistan spinners bowl at fast pace and with low flight. If Mitchell Santner or Keshav Maharaj were bowling in that situation, they would have bounced it and reduced the speed of the balls. The slower the ball, the more power you need to make a big shot. Maxwell got the benefit of this. Nothing was easy for Maxwell. He has suffered from depression in 2018 and had to seek professional help to deal with it. After marrying long-time partner Vinny Raman and becoming a father, he is thinking about life beyond cricket and is living a happy life. What he achieved against Afghanistan on Tuesday was another unique performance. A performance which can only be compared with Kapit Dev’s batting of 40 years ago. We may see the next such example after 40 years. Language Anand Pantpant
