For much of the time after reaching his century, Maxwell could barely move due to cramp and came very close to retiring injured, so much so that Adam Zampa came downstairs ready to take the field.
“It’s so fresh right now that I’m a little numb,” Maxwell told reporters. “It was so much fun. It felt like it was me and Patty. [Cummins] having fun out there. I’ll probably reflect a little more in the next few days and hope to recover and regain some movement in my hamstrings and calves. “It’s pretty raw right now.”
On the presenter’s broadcast, Ricky Ponting said: “I’ve watched and played a lot of cricket, and I haven’t seen anything like it… unbelievable scenes, he was done. He was down and out, he couldn’t move.”
“We talked about going out and trying to work on my back a little bit and loosen up my legs a little bit,” Maxwell said. “The physiotherapist said that after that it would be very difficult for you to go back down the stairs. That probably made the job a little easier.
“So we came up with the idea of staying at the same end as long as possible, until you can at least walk down the other end if there’s an easy single. But for a while it was ‘if I can get one or two boundaries’ At the other end, it didn’t really matter what was happening at the other end. Because we managed to run the ball at that stage. There was some planning, it wasn’t all just a chaotic swing.
“We knew Rashid had about 18 balls left which was going to happen in the last 13 overs or something like that,” he said. “As long as we kept him out of the game, I felt like I could push other people’s limits. So it was more about denying him, not letting him have a chance to attack the rest of the queue. If we could keep him out of the game, On the backend of the game we would be fine.
The innings added another extraordinary chapter to Maxwell’s World Cup, which had already included a record-breaking 40-ball against Holland and the incident in which he fell from a golf cart that ruled him out of the England match with a concussion.
“It’s been a busy couple of weeks,” he said wryly. “[It’s] since my family arrived. It’s been a weird couple of weeks. I’m very grateful to be able to come back here and reach the semi-finals. Keep in mind that after the first two games we were pretty close to being written off by most people.
“To be able to get six wins at the right time, and we didn’t have our best stuff tonight, against some pretty energetic opposition, so to be in the semi-finals is a great feeling and I hope we enjoy a few days in Pune. I’ll stay away from the golf cars”.