There were 79 runs that came in front of the wicket, compared to 75 behind the wicket; a 51-49 split again.
Most players’ bread and butter shot in T20 cricket is a slog in front of square on the leg side. Marcus Stoinis, who also made a very impressive 75 from 31 balls, hit 45.3 per cent of his runs in this zone.
Maxwell? He hit just 27.9 per cent of his runs in front of square on the leg side.
There were 43 runs in front of square on the leg side, compared to 42 behind square on the off side; a split of 51-49 again. Scoring runs in equal measure to opposite zones of the park make Maxwell a nightmare to bowl at.
Another intriguing statistic is that Maxwell only hit four sixes.
While Maxwell’s dig was the ninth highest in T20 history – behind the likes of Chris Gayle (175) and Aaron Finch (172 against Zimbabwe in 2018) – every other player from one to No.27 on the top score list hit more sixes.
Even Stoinis at the other end managed two more. Of the top 10 run-scorers in this year’s BBL, Maxwell has the highest four-to-six ratio (4.08). For comparison, Aaron Finch has hit 1.28 fours for every six this season.
Sure, the Hurricanes rested some of their best bowlers, which is why Wade says his team won’t be scarred by the brutality of the BBL’s second fastest hundred, behind Craig Simmons’ 39-ball ton in 2014.
“It didn’t pan out the way we wanted it to,” Wade said. “I’d be pretty flat the morning after the final if we’d put our eggs in the game and we end up losing a couple of bowlers [to injury]. We’re pretty confident we made the right decision by leaving those guys out. We’ll have them all firing for Friday.”
Consider also that Maxwell was three runs from three balls, in the Stars’ second over, before bringing up triple figures after just 10.4 overs.
The Hurricanes bowled just six dot balls to Maxwell and, according to ESPNcricinfo, the only batsman to have fewer dots in a T20 innings of more than 60 balls was Wade, when he creamed 130 not out off 61 deliveries against the Strikers in 2020.
Could Maxwell have scored more runs? Perhaps, if he’d had more of the strike.
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After 12 overs, Maxwell was 116 off 46. From there, he couldn’t get the strike he wanted, facing only 18 of a possible 48 balls to round out the innings.
Not that Maxwell cared. It was an innings that will be remembered for a long time, even in the blurry world of T20 cricket.
If only the Stars made the BBL finals.
Stats show why Maxwell was so hard to bowl at in record-breaking 154
Source: Philippines Alive
