Every time Glenn Maxwell walks out to bat with overs to spare, a flurry of record-holders must watch from behind their couches and through the cracks between their fingers. Kevin O'Brien's fastest hundred in a World Cup match has become an endangered species, but has somehow managed to survive yet another hunt-down by Maxwell. Still Maxwell proceeded to score his first ODI hundred, bringing it up on the 51st ball he faced, taking Australia to xxx despite two mini wobbles - one at the top that reduced them to 41 for 2 and then the wickets of half-centurions Steve Smith and Michael Clarke in one go and just before the batting Powerplay. Shane Watson scored arguably the most inconspicuous 67 off 41 with Maxwell taking centre stage.

The most instructive moment of the Maxwell innings was perhaps near the end. He was on 99 off 49. Still with a chance to trickle one around the corner and register the joint-fastest World Cup hundred. Also with the knowledge that he had missed out on that elusive hundred at least four times in the past. He looked to nudge Lasith Malinga, missed a slower ball, ran what he thought was a leg-bye, but saw umpire Ian Gould in no hurry to raise his leg. Greater batsmen with many more centuries to their name than Maxwell have snuck in a single at such moments, but Maxwell seemed to instruct to Gould he hadn't hit it. The leg-bye was finally signalled.

Obviously it has been frustrating for Maxwell to have not scored that hundred, but he wasn't going to bring up his first in an underhand manner. Probably if you are in the form that Maxwell is, you know you are going to bring up that opportunity every other time you bat. When he came in to bat, with Smith and Clarke having fallen in the space of five balls, Maxwell had no business batting the way he did. He just watched six deliveries to get a hang of the conditions and chipped the seventh over mid-off for four, and reverse-swept the eighth for a single.
(espncricinfo)