Glenn Maxwell tears up cricket history books with innings of riotous expression

Sometimes, all you need are the numbers. Glenn Maxwell made the fastest World Cup century, taking 40 balls. He arrived in the middle for the first ball of the 40th over. In all List A cricket, it was the latest start in an innings for any player to score a hundred. And it took nine balls of that span for him to first get on strike.

He took 27 balls to go past 50, then 13 to pass a hundred. That last baker’s dozen included two dots and three singles. All up the match saw nine overs bowled between Maxwell facing his first ball and being caught for 106. Australia went from meandering towards 300 to posting 399, on to win by 309. It was in all senses extraordinary.

Sometimes, there are things the numbers can’t tell you. They don’t say that until that point, Australia looked to be continuing a recent trend of fizzling out after a strong start. They don’t say that Maxwell got out first ball in his previous match, doing the team thing after being promoted to push the scoring.

They don’t tell you about a series of the most exquisite pieces of timing, a player with boundary riders ringing the field on the leg side choosing the vacant area over deep third. Maxwell did not exactly play switch hits as he has sometimes done, swapping his hands on the bat and facing up as a left-hander. He simply rotated the handle so the blade faced backwards, then played played reverse shots that caught up with the ball as it passed.

Full at the stumps by Bas de Leede? Swept kneeling from ground level for six. Full and hiding outside off stump from Logan van Beek? Same again. Bouncer to change this up? Same stance, reverse hook shot for six. As adept with regulation shots, pulling sixes over the leg side, driving over point. Poor De Leede’s last two overs went for 43, turning his 10 overs into a record-breaking two for 115. Later he was lbw for four.

Before scoffing at this Netherlands team, or the supposed incongruity that Dutch cricket exists, give it some thought. Be in no doubt about one thing – the current World Cup format was explicitly designed to keep the Dutch out. Not just Netherlands, but any team like them. Scotland, Nepal, Namibia, Hong Kong, half a dozen up-and-comers who could be rising more quickly with better support.

Glenn Maxwell goes through his repertoire of shots against the Netherlands. Photograph: Sajjad Hussain/AFP/Getty Images

Initially, expanding cricket’s one-day competition was an assumed good. A composite East Africa team played in 1975, Canada in 1979. Zimbabwe got entry in 1983 and promptly beat Australia. Sri Lanka were considered easybeats in the 80s but won the whole thing by 1996. Mostly expansion teams got smashed while people questioned whether they should be there, but the surprises made the counter argument. Bangladesh debuted in 1999 and beat Pakistan. Kenya made a semi-final in 2003.

The tipping point was 2007. The first stages assumed a football-style structure of groups of four: three games per team, two teams progressing, one unexpected loss enough to knock out a favourite. Bangladesh and Ireland duly beat India and Pakistan, taking out the two biggest television audiences and causing conniptions among networks and advertisers. The message to the ICC was clear: never again. Being unsuccessful was never enough to evict smaller teams from the Cup. Success was what got them kicked out.

By 2019 we had 10 teams. The intention was simple: rankings would see eight teams qualify directly, with the assumption that they would be India, Australia, England, Pakistan, South Africa, Sri Lanka, West Indies and New Zealand. The last two spots were up for grabs between the expendable Full Member nations who don’t make the ICC much money – Bangladesh, Zimbabwe, Afghanistan and Ireland – plus a few lower-ranked countries who were supposed to lose to those better funded.

That was the obstacle course assembled in front of Netherlands, that they leapt over, weaved around, or barged through. The ICC did not anticipate Afghanistan and Bangladesh pushing West Indies and Sri Lanka out of the top eight into qualifiers. The Dutch burst past those Test nations, past Ireland and Zimbabwe too. So did Scotland, who looked set for that last World Cup spot, but the Dutch chased a big target in sufficiently few overs to pass them on net run rate. That day, De Leede took five wickets and made a ton.

They can seriously play. Their first win of this tournament stands out more by the game, bowling out South Africa for 207, either side of South Africa making 428, 311, 399 and 382 against traditional opponents. But even beanstalk owners can’t kill giants every day. A group of players from the Dutch league, South African domestic cricket, and the English county system, who could probably earn better money in retail, came up against players who hone their games on a million bucks a year from Cricket Australia.

On Wednesday in Delhi, they just got Maxwelled. He is playing in his third World Cup: 21 innings, 656 runs, a strike rate of 162.37. It is by far the fastest scoring in any World Cup career of more than four innings or 74 runs. The closest record with more runs is Brendon McCullum, godfather of the tonk, who went at a comparatively sedentary 120.84. Maxwell has produced a career unlike anybody else’s. This occasion was seeing it at its fullest, most riotous expression.