'Hit or bust': Maxwell and Carey go on front foot to inspire unlikely win for Australia
Australian match winners Alex Carey and Glenn Maxwell adopted a “hit or bust” attitude to fire the touring side to a dramatic three-wicket victory over England and seal the one-day international series 2-1.
Australia were in desperate trouble when they slumped to 73-5 chasing 303 for victory before Carey and Maxwell joined forces in a thrilling partnership of 212.
“We were really focused out there and we had a really good idea of what we wanted to do as far as keeping up the run rate was concerned and try and take it as deep as possible,” said Maxwell after being named man of the match and man of the series.
“It was amazing. Coming it at five wickets down for 70-odd [runs], it was probably hit or bust at that stage. If we lost another wicket in the next five or 10 overs, it was going to be pretty hard to expect the bowlers to do a job with the bat for us.
“But once our partnership started to build, we could take a couple of risks, get away with a few and ride that momentum.”
Carey survived a dismissal off a Jofra Archer no ball when he had scored nine runs before going on to reached his maiden ODI hundred. But Maxwell was the senior partner as he got to three figures first in a match-winning partnership.
Australia needed only 21 runs off the last three overs but Maxwell topedged spinner Adil Rashid and was caught by Tom Curran for 108 and 10 balls later Carey was caught by a diving Mark Wood at third man for 106.
“I was really filthy with myself for going out because I thought it might be difficult for a new better to finish it off,” Maxwell said.
His concern was ill-founded, however, as Mitchell Starc attacked Rashid’s final over to secure victory with two balls to spare.