In September 2016, Glenn Maxwell opened the batting for Australia in a Twenty20 International against Sri Lanka and blasted his way to an unbeaten 145 off just 65 deliveries. In the next game, he hit 66 off just 29 balls, also at the top of the order.
It was thus a little surprising that Maxwell did not open the batting for his Indian Premier League franchise Kings XI Punjab in their opening match of the 10th season of the T20 league. Punjab were chasing 164 to win, as Hashim Amla walked out to bat with Manan Vohra.
Maxwell has mostly come one-down for Punjab ever since his association with them began in 2013, so at most you would have expected him to walk in when Vohra fell at the end of the third over. But no, it was Wriddhiman Saha who came in. When Saha fell a couple of overs later, surely, surely it would be Maxwell next.
The Punjab captain clearly had other plans at the time, as Axar Patel of all people walked out. The young bowling all-rounder did well to partner Amla for five overs, before the South African holed out to long-off. It was then that finally Maxwell came out to bat.
Punjab were 83/3 at the stage and on course for a successful chase. However, Patel fell soon after, skying Imran Tahir to make it 85/4 in 11.2 overs. Punjab were not in trouble, but susceptible to a collapse, as David Miller joined his captain.
That wasn’t to happen as Maxwell and Miller took their team home with an over to spare. Maxwell creamed 44 off just 20 balls, while Miller was relatively more restrained in his 30 off 27 balls, the two sharing a 79-run stand. Maxwell had left it late to join the party, but he did not ruin it.
Tahir continues to impress
Imran Tahir is having a great IPL. In two matches, he has taken five wickets already. And to think that over a fortnight ago he did not have an IPL team. The South African was instrumental in Pune’s opening win of the season against Mumbai Indians, taking three crucial wickets. He threatened to derail Punjab as well on Saturday, sending Saha and Patel back to the pavilion. However, he could not do any further damage once Maxwell and Miller came together. Nonetheless, Tahir has made a statement to whoever did not pick him in the player auction, which was everyone actually. He’s currently loving it in the IPL and has also brought his over-the-top celebrations to the tournament.
Smith shows he’s only human
For over a month since the last week of February, Indian cricket fans had hardly seen Steve Smith get out. The Australia captain was in imperious form during his team’s tour of India, scoring 499 runs in four Test matches against Virat Kohli’s men. Australia ended up losing the series, only just, 2-1 but Smith proved his credentials as one of the best batsmen in the world.
After the series ended, Smith had to trade his white flannels for the purple jersey of his IPL team. In RPS’ opening match of IPL 10, against Mumbai Indians in Pune, Smith continued from where he left off in the Test series, blazing his way to an unbeaten 84 off just 54 balls, as he led his team to a seven-wicket win. Smith just did not know how to get out in India.
Not until Saturday.
In RPS’ second match of the season, Smith was just getting into his groove after settling in. He had scored a run-a-ball 26, before playing an awkward-looking shot straight to deep square-leg where Vohra just managed to catch the ball within the boundary rope. Steve Smith was out in India. For cheap. In the end, it took an Australian to get him out – the bowler was Marcus Stoinis, who was not part of Smith’s Australia Test team. Take that, skipper.
Stokes shows up
Pune were at a precarious 49/3 when Smith’s wicket fell, as MS Dhoni came out to join Ben Stokes to loud cheers from the Indore crowd. However, the former India and RPS captain too could not last long before giving a simple return catch to spinner Swapnil Singh, who tried his best to drop it before holding on. It was 71/4 in the 12th over, and Pune were in trouble.
Stokes had had an ordinary IPL debut, taking 1/36 and scoring just 21 against Mumbai. The IPL’s most expensive overseas player had at least Rs 14.5 crore riding on him. No pressure. The Englishman took a few balls to settle in, before going for his shots. The big booms over long-on and the midwicket region were soon brought out, as he began the recovery job along with Manoj Tiwary. Stokes needed only 30 balls to reach his half-century, but was dismissed soon after as he slapped Axar Patel’s delivery straight back to the bowler.
Tiwary and Daniel Christian then did their own slam-bang in the last five overs, and managed to get 55 runs off it, as they took Pune’s total to a competitive 163/6 on a pitch that had some live grass. Unfortunately for Pune, it wasn’t enough.
Brief scores:
Rising Pune Supergiant 163/6 (Ben Stokes 50, Manoj Tiwary 40*; Sandeep Sharma 2/33) lost to Kings XI Punjab 164/4 in 19 overs (Glenn Maxwell 44*, David Miller 30*; Imran Tahir 2/29) by six wickets.
