The show is over: Maxwell pulls stumps on ODI career
Glenn Maxwell realised it was time to retire from one-day international cricket when his creaking body struggled to deal with a rock-hard outfield at Lahore during Australia's ICC Champions Trophy quest in February.
Maxwell is one of Australia's greatest short-form all-rounders but the 36-year-old's body has taken a beating over the years.
The hero of Australia's 2023 World Cup win, with an innings considered the greatest of all time, announced his retired from ODIs on Monday after 149 matches, featuring 3990 runs at 33.81 with four centuries and 23 half centuries, and a strike rate of 126.7 - the second highest in ODI cricket behind only West Indian Andre Russell.
He also had 77 wickets at 47.32. And that doesn't do justice to the dozens of spectacular moments the man dubbed the Big Show produced.
However, Maxwell said he is still available for international T20 matches and domestic T20 tournaments, including the lucrative Indian Premier League and the Big Bash League with his Melbourne Stars.
'My decision to retire from one-day international cricket was probably more so on the back of the first couple of games of the Champions Trophy. I felt like I gave myself a good opportunity to be fit and ready for those games and the first game in Lahore we played on a rock-hard outfield and post that game, I was pretty sore,' Maxwell, a proud Victorian, told the Final Word podcast.
'We were lucky enough to have a washout against South Africa where I had a bit more time to have a bit of rest and get myself ready for the next game. The following game against Afghanistan we fielded for 50 overs on a really, really wet outfield. It was slippery, soft, and I just didn't pull up that well. And I started to think that if I don't have the perfect conditions in 50 over cricket, my body, probably, struggles to get through that.
'It feels like it's a tiring affair just to get through … surviving 50 overs, let alone being at my best through the 50 overs, then going out there and trying to perform with the bat as well. I felt like I was sort of letting the team down a little bit with how my body was reacting to the conditions.'
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In front of 57,226 fans on Thursday night, Australia looked disjointed and uninspiring throughout the match before Behich popped up for the winner in what was his first international goal in 13 years. Riley McGree's angled cut back rolled tantalisingly untouched in the box, and Behich ran back and unleashed a right-foot strike while spinning his body to send the ball flying in for a goal. Socceroos coach Tony Popovic exploded with emotion on the bench when the goal went in, with a flare set off in the crowd to mark the moment. The result means the Socceroos (16 points, +8 goal difference) will lock in the second automatic World Cup qualifying spot from their group - barring a crazy big loss to Saudi Arabia in Jeddah next Tuesday. Saudi Arabia (10 points, -2 goal difference) need to beat lowly Bahrain overnight to stay in the hunt to leapfrog the Socceroos. Thursday's result marked Australia's first win over Japan since 2009. Japan (20 points) entered Thursday night's match under no pressure to perform given they had already qualified for the World Cup as the winners of their group. Regulars such as Kaoru Mitoma, Daizen Maida, Reo Hatate, Takumi Minamino, Ritsu Doan, Junya Ito and Hidemasa Morita didn't even make the trip to Australia, while stars Wataru Endo, Takefusa Kubo and goalkeeper Zion Suzuki were named on the bench. Japan named three debutants in their starting XI as well as six other players with four or fewer international caps to their name. Australia looked like they had stage fright in the first half, with basic errors and bad decision-making regularly plaguing them. Japan enjoyed 70 per cent possession for the half, and they gave the Socceroos a big scare in the 28th minute when Yuito Suzuki surged forward and sent his shot just wide. A goalkeeping error from Japan in the 48th minute gave Behich a sniff that he wasn't able to take advantage of. But he made no mistake in the 90th minute, burying his chance to send the crowd into raptures.
