3 minute read
Today Glenn Maxwell spent one ball in the 90s and it was a no-ball. There’s not much cause to be nervous in the 90s when it’s so vanishingly unlikely you’ll be dismissed in them.
When weird looking batters score a lot of runs, there are two main things people tend to say about them.
- “If you look closely, he’s actually in a good position when he makes contact with the ball”
- “His head is actually very still when he hits the ball”
See the four stages of Steve Smith’s recurring metamorphosis into a batsman for a good example of the first one. Shivnarine Chanderpaul was another who injected an incredible volume of weirdness into his movements before striking the ball but who then generally did so from a not-too-insane position.
Glenn Maxwell is very much in the second category. The best you can say is that whatever position he gets himself into, he generally sticks with it.
Maxwell doesn’t ever seem to think, “Man, this is a worryingly bizarre contortion, maybe I should refrain from trying to hit this one for six.”
He instead seems to go with, “Man, this is a worryingly bizarre contortion. Well, anyway, guess I’ll hit this for six.”
Exhibit A
Glenn Maxwell’s reverse-panning really is quite the thing to behold. This is not a position from which many batters hit boundaries, but our man’s pretty comfortable swinging backwards into the off-side while facing forwards with one knee on the ground. He’s watching the ball. He’s going to hit the ball for four.
Exhibit B
This knock-kneed sibling of the previous one preceded the ball going for six, even though he completely forgot to follow-through for some reason.
Exhibit C
Another frequently-adopted position is when Glenn turns himself into a reverse letter C. This looks really, really, deeply uncomfortable. However, no-one seems to have informed his head or his hands of this fact and so they just busy themselves mullering the ball into the crowd at cow corner.
Exhibit D
You can’t slice the ball behind square for six if you don’t first get under it, so simply collapse your back leg, get good and low, and keep your bat face pointing towards the off side throughout, even though you may have to sacrifice both wrists to achieve this.
Next step
Celebrate your 40-ball hundred without a bat.