Posted by 
2019 Cricket World Cup, Game 26, Australia v Bangladesh
In this world, there are people who like new things and there are people who do not. There are people who seek out new food in new places and there are people who go to McDonald’s when they’re on holiday because at least you know what you’re getting. There are people who gave that last series of Twin Peaks a go and found certain elements very powerful despite the series as a whole being quite hard work and there are people who watch Eastenders every night. There are people who like Glenn Maxwell and there are people who do not.
Maxwell is the physical manifestation of creativity. You have to try things to be creative and not everything you try will work. But some things do work. Some things work so, so well, and all that other rubbish stuff that doesn’t work is a price worth paying for that.
Glenn Maxwell played a 10-ball innings against Bangladesh that was basically a highlights package.
But which ball was the best ball?
Glenn Maxwell’s top ten (in chronological order)
Ball 1. Two runs through midwicket. Not actually all that exciting.
Ball 2. Single to long-on. Again, not actually all that exciting. He’s giving you a chance to notice he’s in and to start paying attention.
Ball 3. Wide yorker sliced for four. Very fun.
Ball 4. A strong contender. Here’s a blurry image of Glenn Maxwell hitting a 100 per cent perfectly normal six.
You can’t buy that kind of feline elegance and balance. The ball also landed on the boundary toblerone, so extra points for precision.
Ball 5. A wide yorker, so Maxwell turns towards the leg-side, arcs his body into a reverse-C shape and smears it almost behind him through cover for four.
Absolute nonsense of a shot.
Ball 6. Beasted halfway into the stand over square leg via a surprisingly normal human shot.
Ball 7. Dot ball to cover, which, to be honest, given the way things had been going, felt pretty weird and unusual.
Ball 8. A giant three.
Ball 9. Another titanic pull shot.
Ball 10. Run out, which is always the most entertaining way to be dismissed. It was better than that though.
For a start, this is the shot that he played.
The ball went straight to a fielder. Maxwell got halfway down the pitch and then turned round when he realised that Usman Khawaja wasn’t mad-keen on being run-out.
After the ball hit the stumps, this is the look he gave Khawaja.
Exemplary stuff.
Conclusion: For the combination of pointlessly otherworldly stroke, comical run-out and angry look, Ball 10 was the best ball out of Glenn Maxwell’s magnificent 10-ball innings.
In unrelated news, hats of to Germany – 4 wins out of 5 in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup Europe Region Final, putting the likes of Guernsey and Jersey (but not Italy) to the zweihänder.
Guernsey did less well, despite their off-brand Jos Buttler.
Hats off, even.
Hut ab. Or “hut avek”, as some might say.
And if you dig Jacobean hats, dig this:
http://ianlouisharris.com/2019/06/13/in-darkness-let-me-dwell-a-musical-setting-to-honour-the-founding-of-edward-alleyns-college-of-gods-gift-400-years-ago-14-june-2019/
Germany didn’t qualify for the next round, their five-wicket defeat to Italy proving costly. Jersey also P5 W4 despite their loss to Germany, and got top spot on Net Run Rate, +1.802 versus +1.749. Tight, and rather a shame, since Germany look pretty serious about becoming the new Netherlands, and may already have supplanted Denmark as the second-best continental side, whereas Jersey obviously have a population-limited upside for how far they can go.
Germany are doing very well in terms of number of regular players in the country, which is growing rapidly. They put together very strong squad, lots of Afghans in it including Izatullah Dawlatzai who actually played 5 ODIs for the Afghan national team a few years back.
They also made an audacious bid for the services of three county players, and then picked up a fourth mid-tournament!
Ollie Rayner (Middlesex spinner) comes from a British military family which is why he was born in Germany. Craig Meschede (Glamorgan, ex Somerset) and Dieter Klein (Leics) come from South Africa but have German passports by ancestry. They all went to the training camp but only Meschede actually made it to the tournament, where he was obviously a class above most of the field.
Germany had to call up three replacement players during the tournament due to injuries, and their back-up wicketkeeper was Michael Richardson (Durham) – another South Africa-born county player with German passport through ancestry.
The pivotal Jersey v Germany match is available to watch, with commentary and graphics (often a few balls out of date) and occasionally wind-shaken camera-work at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UsSEdkbC4PE
Richardson and Meschede open the batting in Germany’s reply at about 2:09. It’s interesting to see how they cope with a team of amateurs (mostly – Jersey’s Jonty Jenner plays for Sussex, mostly in the second XI, and was a sub fielder for England in a Test against South Africa a couple of years ago).
But the passage of play from 2:52 is probably the best. Fascinating, entertaining and genuinely tense watching as Germany try to chase the runs down in an ambitious 14 overs to see if they can overtake Jersey on NRR and reach the main World T20 Qualifier – sixes, wickets, everything in between. I probably enjoyed it more than I have the World Cup highlights. The complete confusion at the end of the game is wonderful.
Great stuff, Bail-out. If Afganistan’s rise to the top table has taught us anything, it’s that you start by beating the Channel Islands teams and end by getting demolished by England’s Irish captain playing in the World Cup.
One of the best things about YouTube cricket, especially complete matches like this one, is watching them with the speed set to 1.5x or above. If there’s a dull section it zooms past. The end of this game was not dull.
I apologise to Yer Maj for hogging the comment space but I need to post this one today because the records keep changing at a frenetic pace – as of the 20th June, looking at the six biggest wins (by runs) in official Women’s T20 Internationals, they involve twelve different national sides! (Sadly the top seven features 13 sides, since one side in the seventh-biggest win is a repeat.) I think this is the first time this has happened, as it wasn’t true on the 19th June, and I doubt this remarkable statistic will survive the next week, but while it still exists it makes an excellent quiz.
Here are the 12 sides involves in the six most-run-winniest WT20I thrashings, listed in alphabetical order. For one point each, can you work out which six sides were the thrashers and which six the thrashees?
Brazil, China, Lesotho, Malaysia, Mali, Mexico, Mozambique, Namibia, Pakistan, UAE, Uganda, Zimbabwe
For a bonus point, which of these was the biggest-ever-by-runs winner? And for a second bonus point, which was on the receiving end of that loss? (The margin of victory in that clash was a daunting 304 runs, which rather dwarfs the 189, 179, 163, 150, and 147 run margins for the rest of the set.)
Final marks out of 14. Since the first twelve marks are at worst 50:50 guesses as to whether each side was a winner or loser, the par score must be at least 6, but I think double figures is achievable by applying some logic about which sides are likely to have played in a tournament against each other and then considering which way round the mismatch is likely to be.
Turns out the statistic didn’t even last the day! Some serious mismatches taking place at the moment.
Sadly the spam filter keeps eating up the stats guru link that contains the answers.
One last go with a url shortener….
https://bit.ly/2J2sDZS
Brilliant. Didn’t watch the match, but this is enough. This is exactly why I come here.
Nice to see England doing their bit to fend off the threat of dead rubbers.
Hmmm.
That adds some frisson to my & Daisy’s forthcoming visit to Lord’s on Tuesday.
Unwanted frisson I might add.
Well bugger me with a bat handle. Cat, meet pigeons.
‘A fleet of wafty Williams.’ Op. cit. anyone watching cricket (1901-1910).
Erm… yeah. Not sure what to say about that performance really
[Scratches head distractedly]
… #WorldCupBanter