“I feel really comfortable in this format,” Maxwell told Fox Sports at the post-match presentation. “I think over the last probably 18 months I’ve felt really good about my batting and really good about my game. I feel clear when I’m out in the middle. The game can sometimes feel nice and simple when you’re out there and at other times you nick a couple of early and all of a sudden becomes really difficult. So I think while I’m going well I’m just trying to ride that as much as I possibly can and keep doing the same things.”
Maxwell admitted that he got frustrated early in his innings on Sunday. He was 4 off 6 at one stage having yelled loudly at himself several times after finding fielders with well-struck shots.
“I probably just didn’t hit the gaps as well as I would have liked straight away from the outset,” Maxwell said.
“I probably expected too much of myself early on. But once I sort of calmed down, I hit a few gaps and gave myself a decent platform. We knew we were going to cash in the back 10 [overs] with a couple of wickets in hand, so it worked out really nicely.”
Maxwell got his innings going with a huge slog sweep off Akeal Hosein and then took flight from there. He hit some extraordinary shots including a switch hit off Hosein into the second tier at cover-point. But he said the first blow was the one that proved he was switched on.
“I made a good decision against Akeal when he bowled an inswinger,” Maxwell said. “I slog swept that one and I just felt like I was really clear in that moment, as soon as he bowls that swinger, to go to that shot, it just shows that I was watching the ball really hard. I was proud of that and I was able to, sort of, ride through the waves of the innings a little bit. You’re not going to hit everything out of the middle, you’re not going to hit everything for six but to go through the waves and mistime a couple, I was able to lock back in and stay pretty clear.”
“It’s been a nice position for a long period of time but it’s a difficult position as well,” Maxwell said. “I think that’s why I enjoy it so much. There’s so many different scenarios you can come into and you’ve got to think your way through it and change the momentum of the game. I love it.”