Glenn Maxwell scored his second half ton in IPL 2021 to help Royal Challengers Bangalore to a win over Rajasthan Royals on Wednesday.
What separated Maxwell on Wednesday night from the Maxwell of yore was intent.
After RCB lost Openers Devdutt Padikkal and Virat Kohli after the Powerplay overs, they needed a solid partnership to see them home.
150 was never going to be a task to chase on this wicket, but Maxwell put his mind to it to guide his team to a win.
He played responsibly while going about his business and scoring freely. His innings included 6 fours and one six and neither of these big hits were risk shots.
His batting instilled confidence in his partner at the other end as Shikar Bharat also found his feet as the innings progressed.
The duo brought up a 50 run partnership in the 14th over after which they just motored along with ease.
With the equation being a run-a-ball, Maxwell took on the bowling and clobbered Chris Morris for 22 big runs, smoking the bowler to all parts of the park with a six and then three consecutive fours to log 7,000 runs in the IPL.
The Maxwell that batted on Wednesday night was the batsmen RCB needed. He played smartly with minimal risk, hittting only the bad balls while being content rotating the strike.
This Maxwell 2.0 has been a revelation since joining RCB and his presence adds much needed weight to the middle order.
