Glenn Maxwell has teed off for one of his special Indian Premier League knocks, clouting his second half-century of the week to lead Royal Challengers Bangalore to a seven-run win over Rajasthan Royals.
The spectacular allrounder has rediscovered some vintage form in this edition of the IPL, having had to undergo a long rehabilitation from the broken leg he suffered in a freak accident at a birthday party last November.
Increasingly looking back to his inventive and difficult-to-stop best, the 34-year-old has cracked three quickfire fifties in his last five innings, but was going so strongly in Bengaluru on Sunday that he was the picture of disappointment when falling for 77 off just 44 balls.
After racing to his 16th IPL half-century off just 27 balls by smashing Jason Holder for a straight six still only halfway through the RCB innings, 'Maxi' had looked in prime form to go past his league best of 95 and claim his first IPL ton as he clattered six fours and four sixes.
He even completely mistimed one hoik off Ravichandran Ashwin - yet it still flew for six.
But after putting on 127 with captain Faf du Plessis, the league's leading scorer (405 runs), who was run out brilliantly by Yashasvi Jaiswal for 62, Maxwell was left raging at himself when a switch hit off Ashwin went straight to Holder at point.
Though RCB ended up short of the 200 mark on 9-189, Maxwell's contribution still proved key as Rajasthan never quite recovered from the shock of a second-ball dismissal of Jos Buttler in their chase.
They eventually feel just short on 6-182, despite Devdutt Padikkal's half-century and Dhruv Jurel's last-gasp unbeaten 34 off 16 deliveries.
Maxwell, who got smacked for 25 off his two overs with the ball, has taken his season's tally to 253 runs in seven knocks with the bat.
He's also scored them at a searing strike rate of 188.80, the second best among the top 20 scorers. His 23 sixes have also only been bettered over the season by du Plessis's 25.
The capacity home crowd were left thrilled, making up for their day's big let down - Virat Kohli falling for a golden duck off the very first ball of the day, trapped lbw by New Zealand quick Trent Boult for his 100th IPL wicket.
In the day's later game at Kolkata's Eden Gardens, Chennai Super Kings piled up 4-235, the league's highest score so far this season, en route to beating the home Knight Riders (8-168) by 49 runs and moving to the top of the IPL table.
Ajinkya Rahane, who's the only top-20 batter to be scoring at a quicker rate than Maxwell, hit 71 not out off 29 deliveries, Shivam Dube contributed a 21-ball 50 and New Zealander Devon Conway recorded his fourth consecutive half-century (56 off 40 balls) for Chennai.
In reply, not even Jason Roy's 26-ball 61 and Rinku Singh's unbeaten 53 off 33 could get the home side anywhere near the target as Chennai enjoyed their fifth win in seven games.
