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Deputy editor, ESPNcricinfo- Deputy Editor Andrew arrived at ESPNcricinfo via Manchester and Cape Town, after finding the assistant editor at a weak moment as he watched England's batting collapse in the Newlands Test. Andrew began his cricket writing as a freelance covering Lancashire during 2004 when they were relegated in the County Championship. In fact, they were top of the table when he began reporting on them but things went dramatically downhill. He likes to let people know that he is a supporter of county cricket, a fact his colleagues will testify to and bemoan in equal quantities.
With Glenn Maxwell calling time on his international career, we look back at some of the standout performances from a career littered with spectacular moments.
95 and 4 for 46 vs England, Perth, 2015
In the final of a tri-series which acted as a World Cup warm-up, Maxwell produced a dominant all-round display. His 95 was central to Australia recovering from 60 for 4. "Maxwell went from sensible to sensational," Cricinfo's match report said. He followed that up by running through England's middle and lower order with four wickets. It was just the sixth occasion of an Australian scoring a fifty and taking four wickets in an ODI and there hasn't been one in the men's game since.
102 vs Sri Lanka, SCG, 2015
Maxwell's maiden international century was a barnstorming display as he monstered a 53-ball 102 to ensure Australia's home World Cup continued towards the knockouts. Maxwell had a solid base to build on when he arrived at 175 for 3 in the 32nd over and he took full advantage. He dominated a stand of 160 with Shane Watson, reaching his hundred from 51 deliveries, which, at the time, was a record for Australia's men.
145* vs Sri Lanka, Pallekele, 2016
Maxwell only opened nine times in his 268 international innings and had only opened twice before 2016, once in an ODI and once in a Test match. But when Aaron Finch hurt his finger, Maxwell made a quip to then batting coach Greg Blewett about wanting to open and skipper David Warner obliged in the first T20I of the series. Maxwell did not waste the chance, hammering 14 fours and nine sixes in his 65-ball 145 not out that helped Australia post a then record T20I score of 263 for 3. Maxwell's 145 was also the second-highest individual total in T20Is at the time, bettered only by Finch's 156 against England in 2013.
104 vs India, Ranchi, 2017
It was the moment Maxwell proved to himself and the world that he was more than just a short-format slogger. His first foray into Test cricket across three matches in India in 2013 and the UAE in 2014 had not gone well and there were many sceptics. He had to wait three full years for his third coming, including running the drinks in Pune and Bengaluru at the start of the 2017 Border-Gavaskar Trophy series. It came in Ranchi and he delivered when it counted. With the series locked at 1-1, he entered with Australia teetering at 140 for 4 on a good pitch after electing to bat. He shared a 191-run stand with skipper Steven Smith, who made 178 not out. Maxwell went to stumps on day one 82 not out and found the 18 runs needed on day two to become the second Australian Shane Watson to score a century in all three forms. Only Warner, Josh Inglis and Mitchell Marsh have since joined that group.
"I went through about 300 to 400 different scenarios that could've happened [when he resumed on the second day], most of them weren't good," Maxwell said after reaching his maiden Test century. "So much emotion fell out of me as soon as I got that hundred. Even thinking about it now, I've got a frog in my throat. It's as special a moment as I've had in my career and hopefully it's not the last."
It would prove to be his last. He only played three more Tests, all in 2017, and never played a Test on home soil.
103* vs England, Hobart, 2018
Until 2018, no individual player had taken three or more wickets and scored a century in the same T20I. Enter Maxwell, who put in his greatest all-round T20I performance against England in Hobart. England were racing along at nearly 10-an-over in the tenth over when Maxwell removed Eoin Morgan in his first over. He picked up two in his second, the 16th, claiming top-scorer Dawid Malan and David Willey to keep England to 155 for 9. He walked out to bat at 4 for 2 in the first over of the chase after Willey had dismissed Warner and Chris Lynn before strumming 103 not out from 58 balls to end the chase with nine balls to spare and five wickets in hand. D'Arcy Short was Australia's second-highest scorer with 30; none of their other five batters, including Warner, Lynn, Marcus Stoinis, Travis Head and Alex Carey, made more than 6. Maxwell remains the only T20I player to have scored a century and taken three wickets against a Full-Member nation.
113* vs India, Bengaluru, 2019
Before the Mumbai Miracle there was the Bengaluru Burglery. Australia needed 60 off 30 to win an away two-game T20I series that was tacked on to the back of an ODI series they had also stolen 3-2 thanks to another miracle in Mohali. But 60 off 30, with Jasprit Bumrah to bowl two of them and Yuzvendra Chahal one, looked a tall order despite Maxwell being 60 off 35. He thumped Chahal twice for sixes in the 16th and sent Bumrah to the fence twice in the 17th before launching Siddarth Kaul twice in the 18th to reduce the equation to 14 off 12, all while partner Peter Handscomb offered nothing more than singles at the other end. He reached his century off 50 balls in the 19th but Bumrah allowed just five off the over meaning Australia needed nine from the last to win. Maxwell won it with two balls to spare, depositing an attempted yorker from Kaul to the sightscreen before smoking the winning runs over cover.
108 vs England, Old Trafford, 2020
In an empty ground during the depths of Covid, this innings wasn't cheered on by thousands in the stands, but it was worthy of great acclaim as Maxwell slotted into the finisher's role at No. 7 that would be a large part of the latter stages of his ODI career. The series against England marked his first ODIs since the 2019 World Cup, having missed the previous home season while taking a mental-health break. Australia were long-odds for victory when Maxwell entered at 73 for 5 chasing 303 but forged a magnificent stand of 212 with Carey. His own century came from 84 balls and included more sixes (seven) than fours (four). It enabled Australia to clinch the series 2-1.
106 vs Netherlands, Delhi, 2023
It wasn't the strongest attack Maxwell had ever faced, but it was a ferocious display of strokeplay as he raced to a 40-ball century, setting a new record for the fastest hundred at a men's ODI World Cup and breaking his own landmark for the fastest for Australia's men. "I'm very aware of balls faced," Maxwell said. "I love the fastest 50, fastest 100 records. I think they're pretty cool records. Sometimes to the detriment of myself, I've always probably pushed the boundaries a bit too much."
201* vs Afghanistan, Mumbai, 2023
The innings that cemented Maxwell's legacy. Battling oppressive conditions that left him cramping so badly he could barely move, so much so that next batter in Adam Zampa was ready to replace him, Maxwell turned what appeared an impossible chase into a stunning victory. Australia were 91 for 7 (Maxwell himself had walked in on a hat-trick) when he was joined by captain Pat Cummins and produced something extraordinary. The pair added 202 for the eighth wicket of which Cummins contributed 12 while Maxwell launched ten sixes. With 21 needed off the final four overs for Australia's win and for Maxwell to get to his double-hundred, he went 6, 6, 4, 6 against Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who had earlier dropped him on 33. "It's got to be the greatest ODI innings that's ever happened," Cummins said in the aftermath.
104* vs India, Guwahati, 2023
An encore that was every bit as good as the main set, only very few were paying attention. Just 21 days after his Mumbai Miracle and nine days after he had hit the winning runs in the ODI World Cup final, Australia were forced to play a five-match T20I series in India that no one wanted to be part of. A handful of Australia's World Cup heroes stayed on for the start of the series and played with the energy of a team that would rather be celebrating their title at home. But Maxwell, almost by muscle memory in his 100th T20I, conjured another stunning innings. Chasing 223 to win, Australia needed 43 from 12 balls. Matthew Wade, their 2021 T20 World Cup hero, took 22 from Axar Patel's 19th over and then 4 and 1 from Prasidh Krishna's first two balls of the 20th. It left Maxwell, who was 86 from 44, needing 16 from four balls to win the game. He went 6, 4, 4, 4 to win and post his fourth T20I century. Two innings later he would post his fifth against West Indies, and he retires equal with Rohit Sharma for the most T20I centuries (five).