Suryakumar Yadav on November 28 suffered his first defeat as T20I captain. Glenn Maxwell turned out to be the wrecker-in-chief as he smashed an unbeaten 104 to lead Australia to a five-wicket win at Barsapara Cricket Stadium, Guwahati. Maxwell took the game till the last over and capitalised against a struggling Prasidh Krishna to take his side over the line before flying back home.
“The plan was to get Maxi out as quickly as possible. To defend 220 with so much dew, have to give something to the bowlers. Australia were always in the game. Told the boys we’ll try and get him (Maxwell) out quickly but it didn’t happen, it was insane,” Suryakumar said in the post-match press conference.
Australia needed 43 runs to win from the last two overs. Axar Patel struggled against Matthew Wade. The no-ball after an appeal for stumped out made it worse as he ended up conceding 22 runs (including four byes off the final ball). Suryakumar defended his decision to keep Patel for the penultimate over.
“Axar is an experienced bowler, thought there’s always a chance for an experienced bowler even if it’s a spinner when there’s dew. Very proud of my boys,” said Suryakumar as he defended the bowlers after an ordinary performance.
Maxwell ended the run chase with a six as Krishna struggled with dew and did not know where to ball. In his 100th T20I, he also equalled Rohit Sharma's record of most T20I centuries (4). He broke Nicholas Pooran's record for most sixes (35) against India in T20Is. Maxwell who hit eight sixes in his 104-run knock now has 37 sixes against India in the format. He also became the second Australian after Aaron Finch to score 500 or more against India in T20Is.
“It all went pretty quickly. It was hard work for them to bowl yorkers with so much dew. We didn’t really have a number in mind. Knew we would be in the game if we could take it down to the final over. Wade had to be out there to cash in with Axar having one over left towards the end. Wade was brilliant out there, the way he went helped me as well,” Maxwell said as he won the ‘Player of the match’ award.
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