Photo: SportzPicsKings XI Punjab got one over their Northern rivals Delhi Capitals yesterday in the 2020 Dream11 Indian Premier League, and at the centre of that big win was their big money signing Glenn Maxwell.
The Australian all-rounder accounted for the wicket for Rishabh Pant on the night, and scored a crucial 32 with the bat in hand, playing the perfect anchor role as Kings XI Punjab got over the fence in a fairly comfortable chase against the table-toppers.
Maxwell had been struggling for form all throughout the tournament, having scored just 58 runs in the first nine games of the tournament. The 32-year-old couldn’t get off the mark against Mumbai Indians as well. Despite his travails with the bat, the KXIP management have persisted with Maxwell in IPL 2020, and that finally paid dividends on Tuesday.
“Glenn (Maxwell) has been working really hard in the nets, things haven’t really gone his way for the first 8-9 games, but we always trusted him. We knew that when he comes good what kind of balance he can bring to the team,” said KXIP skipper KL Rahul in the post-match press conference.
“He has been bowling well, he is a great team man so it was important to back him. Really happy that he got to spend some time in the middle and yeah, hopefully he can carry this momentum and keep scoring runs for us down the order,” added Rahul.
Alongside Nicholas Pooran, Glenn Maxwell stitched together a pivotal 61 run partnership for the fourth wicket, after his franchise found themselves in a spot of bother at 56/3 after the powerplay. Maxwell anchored the innings perfectly when Pooran was playing some aggressive cricket, and took the onus upon him to take his side close to the target once the West Indian was dismissed.
Maxwell and Pooran’s efforts laid to rest the criticism that Kings XI Punjab are a top-heavy side, over reliant on Rahul and Mayank Agarwal, as KXIP managed to chase down a hefty target of 165 without their openers giving them a lot of runs.
