Glenn Maxwell and Ryan Cook post-match press conference, Australia vs Netherlands ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023

Australia player Glenn Maxwell and Netherlands Coach Ryan Cook post-match press conference, Australia vs Netherlands ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023.

Australia player Glenn Maxwel

Netherlands Coach Ryan Cook

Australia player Glenn Maxwell post-match press conference transcript

[Reporter:] How ill were you? How sick were you?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] Yeah, not great. I was sitting in the changing room and I didn't really want to bat, which is a bit different than last game where I was way too eager to get out there. And then we talked about over arousal levels and I probably reached double maximum if you couldn't tell. But yeah, I was a little bit more chilled when I got out there. Didn't have many high hopes, I think. But yeah, I've been pretty cooked the last couple of days. Coincided with the sleepless night last night with the family over but – Yeah

 

[Reporter:] Is it a bit weird that you had to not be over-aroused, you had to under-arouse yourself to hit the fastest century in World Cup history?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] It's a bit weird that I had to calm myself down for the first 20 odd balls and rebuild. I think the circumstances of, I suppose, the timing of the wickets probably changed the way I would have gone about it if it was just me and Davey at the back end. I felt like I was just super selective. Even with the boundaries I was hitting, until I got to about 50 or 60, I was literally hitting them flat through the gap or picking my spots pretty clearly where I wanted to go and it was only the back end where I tried to just pump everything.

 

[Reporter:] Where do you rate this innings? And also, the fact that we are almost halfway through in the World Cup, coming at the stage where you have some important matches coming up. How important is this for you because you didn't have a very good run in ODIs. So how important is that?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] Well, I think the fact that I've made runs in India during the IPL pretty regularly over the last couple of years, so I'm not too worried about people saying that I haven't made runs in ODI cricket because it doesn't really matter, especially my role in one-day cricket. It's so similar to T20, so I just draw on those experiences, knowing that if I do get it right on the day, hopefully my team will be winning. Having had a bit of success this year in India during the IPL, I've come to India during this World Cup full of confidence and even started well in the practice games with a good 70 against Pakistan.

People talk about my last 20 one day games but they're spaced out over 6 years over different continents all over the place and one game at a time every four months, so there's not really much you can sort of go by.

 

[Reporter:] Were there any shots that gave you particular satisfaction tonight? We saw the reverse hits and then those two sixes that went over the scoreboard to bring up the century. Any that gave you particular satisfaction?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] There was probably one where I thought I was out, the reverse of Van Beek that went for six over backward point. I thought it was going to be slower into the wicket or back of the length and he bowled it full at I think middle and off. And luckily enough my hand speed got me out of trouble and I suppose that's just the thing. I feel like tonight I actually gave myself a chance to be able to play those shots at the back end, where circumstances and pitch types, I suppose, in the first few games probably didn't allow me to. I was in the stage of rebuilding and trying to get through and trying to bat as long as I possibly could, and just haven't probably had the opportunity. And as I said last game, had the opportunity and threw it away.

[Reporter:] You were at 75 when two overs were left. So was the century in your mind, you were thinking about the century or you were thinking to go the bang - bang way only?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] It wasn’t really on my mind. I was going to try and farm the strike for the back end. I think it was about five overs to go and I told Pat that I was going to try and control the last five overs as much as I possibly could. If I got it on a run, I thought there was no point in taking singles because it might just be a single back and forth where I could get a bunch of balls in a row and hopefully find some hitting.

I think on a ground like that if you can put pressure on a certain bowler or anyone and get a hold of them a couple of times in a row, you can produce mistakes, you can produce errors. I felt like that was what I did in the 49th over. I was able to put pressure on his good balls to get bad balls, where I could actually hit for sixes. So, I suppose that was just my tactics at the back end. I was lucky enough to get a couple of full tosses at the back end, which highlighted, I suppose, there was a pretty good chance I was going to get 100.

 

[Reporter:] So further to that question, do you actually watch the balls faced on the scoreboard when you're playing in innings like that? And do you have some sort of distant awareness of records or not?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] I'm very aware of them. I'm very aware of balls faced. I love the fastest 50, fastest 100 records. I think they're pretty cool records. Sometimes to the detriment of myself, I've always probably pushed the boundaries a bit too much. I think against Afghanistan in 2015, I was 88 off 37 and I was like I'm getting into the next two balls I hit one straight to cover and butchered it. I think I got my the fastest 100 next game.

So, it was I've been in those positions before I could make fast hundreds when I get on the run - I know I'm difficult to bowl to. It's just about getting past the first ball.

 

[Reporter:] You started your IPL career here at Kotla, how different is this pitch from the previous one? That has been a struggle, those IPL years, scoring runs here at the Kotla, how do you see the difference in this square and now that there's been a lot of totals of around 400, 380 in this tournament, what do you make of it when it comes to ODI cricket? It's obviously fun when it's T20 cricket. So, what do you make of such surfaces for ODI cricket?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] Well, I think you're referring to 2012. The two games that I played for Delhi were at Kolkata and Bangalore. So, I didn't even play a game here. I wasn't really invited to the ground after that either when all the big dogs arrived.

Yeah, the surface has obviously changed. I think back then we had Morne Morkel, Umesh Yadav - We had a pace attack built for speed and bounce on this pitch and it's probably changed over the years. It's been spin, it's been low, it's been hard work and I think this World Cup, when you get a fresh wicket, it's beautiful to bat on and that was really nice out there tonight.

There was only a couple of balls that were a little bit slow off the pitch and reacted a bit different. But apart from that, it was really nice, and to answer your part about the 400 stuff, there's still a lot of things that need to go right to get 400. There still needs to be a platform, there still needs to be solid intent through the middle overs, and then you need a sensational finish. Like you need to be powerful at the back end.

South Africa, when they got their 420 here, they had - was it three blokes get hundreds? And it took something even brilliant from Mark to come out and pump it around after a long partnership which is sometimes not easy to do. A big partnership is sometimes really hard to bat on after in one day cricket because you're expected to keep that momentum, but he did it beautifully.

 

[Reporter:] When you look at the last 12 months, not even a year since you broke your leg in those circumstances, were there moments where you thought you wouldn't get back? And I know you had issues there in with setbacks of late as well?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] There's probably moments post the South Africa T20 series when I was forced to go home with a little setback. That was quite a frustrating period. I felt like I had done a lot of good work post the blast, all that rehab back at home in Melbourne and I felt like my strength and my fielding  You do start to get some dark thoughts of like, is this going to affect me for the whole World Cup? Am I going to be struggling to get through every game? Am I going to be letting the team down by having to field in cold zones on the field where I'm not getting much ball. That wouldn't have sat well with me I think if that had been the case. The fact that I don't have to be hidden in the field is quite nice.

Don't worry, every game still hurts. It's still hard work, but it's nice to get that load, I suppose, and feel confident I can get through a full one day.

 

[Reporter:] Just about your batting, you spoke about the method behind the madness, like how you set up the 49th over. But when you play innings like that, do you just get into a zone where, yes you have your eye on the scorecard, but you finish the innings and you're like - How did I pull that off?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] Yeah, I think I get to a stage I suppose when I'm batting at the back end and I've got a read on the game I can sort of don't try too much out of the ordinary. I don't really lap I didn't really go inside out over cover; I didn't sort of give my stumps away too much. Yeah, I reversed a couple of times but that's only because I sort of had a read on what they were trying to do and the field was up in that position. I didn't really try and take a fielder on in that position and I knew if I could play one or two, I'd get a different type of ball. Then I could cash in on that. And I just felt really clear at the back end. I was able to stand quite still. And I felt hit the ball where it needed to be hit.

 

[Reporter:] And just on the when the light show was going on like you stood with your eyes like shut with their hands away - Is it because you're feeling a little ill or do those lights kind of things always affect you?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] Well, I had something like that light show similar happened at Perth Stadium during a Big Bash game and I just felt like it gave me shocking headaches and it takes me a while for my eyes to readjust and I just think it's the dumbest idea for cricketers when you've got this thing coming at you quickly and your eyes take so long to adjust and I think we just lost a wicket and the Perth Stadium lights went nuts and I was at the other end and it took me ages to get my eyes to go again and I felt like I had a headache - so I just try and cover up as much as I possibly can and ignore it but it's a horrible, horrible idea.

Great for the fans, horrible for the players.

 

 

[Reporter:] How ill were you? How sick were you?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] Yeah, not great. I was sitting in the changing room and I didn't really want to bat, which is a bit different than last game where I was way too eager to get out there. And then we talked about over arousal levels and I probably reached double maximum if you couldn't tell. But yeah, I was a little bit more chilled when I got out there. Didn't have many high hopes, I think. But yeah, I've been pretty cooked the last couple of days. Coincided with the sleepless night last night with the family over but – Yeah

 

[Reporter:] Is it a bit weird that you had to not be over-aroused, you had to under-arouse yourself to hit the fastest century in World Cup history?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] It's a bit weird that I had to calm myself down for the first 20 odd balls and rebuild. I think the circumstances of, I suppose, the timing of the wickets probably changed the way I would have gone about it if it was just me and Davey at the back end. I felt like I was just super selective. Even with the boundaries I was hitting, until I got to about 50 or 60, I was literally hitting them flat through the gap or picking my spots pretty clearly where I wanted to go and it was only the back end where I tried to just pump everything.

 

[Reporter:] Where do you rate this innings? And also, the fact that we are almost halfway through in the World Cup, coming at the stage where you have some important matches coming up. How important is this for you because you didn't have a very good run in ODIs. So how important is that?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] Well, I think the fact that I've made runs in India during the IPL pretty regularly over the last couple of years, so I'm not too worried about people saying that I haven't made runs in ODI cricket because it doesn't really matter, especially my role in one-day cricket. It's so similar to T20, so I just draw on those experiences, knowing that if I do get it right on the day, hopefully my team will be winning. Having had a bit of success this year in India during the IPL, I've come to India during this World Cup full of confidence and even started well in the practice games with a good 70 against Pakistan.

People talk about my last 20 one day games but they're spaced out over 6 years over different continents all over the place and one game at a time every four months, so there's not really much you can sort of go by.

 

[Reporter:] Were there any shots that gave you particular satisfaction tonight? We saw the reverse hits and then those two sixes that went over the scoreboard to bring up the century. Any that gave you particular satisfaction?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] There was probably one where I thought I was out, the reverse of Van Beek that went for six over backward point. I thought it was going to be slower into the wicket or back of the length and he bowled it full at I think middle and off. And luckily enough my hand speed got me out of trouble and I suppose that's just the thing. I feel like tonight I actually gave myself a chance to be able to play those shots at the back end, where circumstances and pitch types, I suppose, in the first few games probably didn't allow me to. I was in the stage of rebuilding and trying to get through and trying to bat as long as I possibly could, and just haven't probably had the opportunity. And as I said last game, had the opportunity and threw it away.

 

[Reporter:] You were at 75 when two overs were left. So was the century in your mind, you were thinking about the century or you were thinking to go the bang - bang way only?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] It wasn’t really on my mind. I was going to try and farm the strike for the back end. I think it was about five overs to go and I told Pat that I was going to try and control the last five overs as much as I possibly could. If I got it on a run, I thought there was no point in taking singles because it might just be a single back and forth where I could get a bunch of balls in a row and hopefully find some hitting.

I think on a ground like that if you can put pressure on a certain bowler or anyone and get a hold of them a couple of times in a row, you can produce mistakes, you can produce errors. I felt like that was what I did in the 49th over. I was able to put pressure on his good balls to get bad balls, where I could actually hit for sixes. So, I suppose that was just my tactics at the back end. I was lucky enough to get a couple of full tosses at the back end, which highlighted, I suppose, there was a pretty good chance I was going to get 100.

 

[Reporter:] So further to that question, do you actually watch the balls faced on the scoreboard when you're playing in innings like that? And do you have some sort of distant awareness of records or not?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] I'm very aware of them. I'm very aware of balls faced. I love the fastest 50, fastest 100 records. I think they're pretty cool records. Sometimes to the detriment of myself, I've always probably pushed the boundaries a bit too much. I think against Afghanistan in 2015, I was 88 off 37 and I was like I'm getting into the next two balls I hit one straight to cover and butchered it. I think I got my the fastest 100 next game.

So, it was I've been in those positions before I could make fast hundreds when I get on the run - I know I'm difficult to bowl to. It's just about getting past the first ball.

 

[Reporter:] You started your IPL career here at Kotla, how different is this pitch from the previous one? That has been a struggle, those IPL years, scoring runs here at the Kotla, how do you see the difference in this square and now that there's been a lot of totals of around 400, 380 in this tournament, what do you make of it when it comes to ODI cricket? It's obviously fun when it's T20 cricket. So, what do you make of such surfaces for ODI cricket?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] Well, I think you're referring to 2012. The two games that I played for Delhi were at Kolkata and Bangalore. So, I didn't even play a game here. I wasn't really invited to the ground after that either when all the big dogs arrived.

Yeah, the surface has obviously changed. I think back then we had Morne Morkel, Umesh Yadav - We had a pace attack built for speed and bounce on this pitch and it's probably changed over the years. It's been spin, it's been low, it's been hard work and I think this World Cup, when you get a fresh wicket, it's beautiful to bat on and that was really nice out there tonight.

There was only a couple of balls that were a little bit slow off the pitch and reacted a bit different. But apart from that, it was really nice, and to answer your part about the 400 stuff, there's still a lot of things that need to go right to get 400. There still needs to be a platform, there still needs to be solid intent through the middle overs, and then you need a sensational finish. Like you need to be powerful at the back end.

South Africa, when they got their 420 here, they had - was it three blokes get hundreds? And it took something even brilliant from Mark to come out and pump it around after a long partnership which is sometimes not easy to do. A big partnership is sometimes really hard to bat on after in one day cricket because you're expected to keep that momentum, but he did it beautifully.

 

[Reporter:] When you look at the last 12 months, not even a year since you broke your leg in those circumstances, were there moments where you thought you wouldn't get back? And I know you had issues there in with setbacks of late as well?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] There's probably moments post the South Africa T20 series when I was forced to go home with a little setback. That was quite a frustrating period. I felt like I had done a lot of good work post the blast, all that rehab back at home in Melbourne and I felt like my strength and my fielding stuff was going really well and to have that set back on day one of my training was quite frustrating. You do start to get some dark thoughts of like, is this going to affect me for the whole World Cup? Am I going to be struggling to get through every game? Am I going to be letting the team down by having to field in cold zones on the field where I'm not getting much ball. That wouldn't have sat well with me I think if that had been the case. The fact that I don't have to be hidden in the field is quite nice.

Don't worry, every game still hurts. It's still hard work, but it's nice to get that load, I suppose, and feel confident I can get through a full one day.

 

[Reporter:]nJust about your batting, you spoke about the method behind the madness, like how you set up the 49th over. But when you play innings like that, do you just get into a zone where, yes you have your eye on the scorecard, but you finish the innings and you're like - How did I pull that off?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] Yeah, I think I get to a stage I suppose when I'm batting at the back end and I've got a read on the game I can sort of don't try too much out of the ordinary. I don't really lap I didn't really go inside out over cover; I didn't sort of give my stumps away too much. Yeah, I reversed a couple of times but that's only because I sort of had a read on what they were trying to do and the field was up in that position. I didn't really try and take a fielder on in that position and I knew if I could play one or two, I'd get a different type of ball. Then I could cash in on that. And I just felt really clear at the back end. I was able to stand quite still. And I felt hit the ball where it needed to be hit.

 

[Reporter:] And just on the when the light show was going on like you stood with your eyes like shut with their hands away - Is it because you're feeling a little ill or do those lights kind of things always affect you?

 

[Glenn Maxwell:] Well, I had something like that light show similar happened at Perth Stadium during a Big Bash game and I just felt like it gave me shocking headaches and it takes me a while for my eyes to readjust and I just think it's the dumbest idea for cricketers when you've got this thing coming at you quickly and your eyes take so long to adjust and I think we just lost a wicket and the Perth Stadium lights went nuts and I was at the other end and it took me ages to get my eyes to go again and I felt like I had a headache - so I just try and cover up as much as I possibly can and ignore it but it's a horrible, horrible idea.

Great for the fans, horrible for the players.

Netherlands Coach Ryan Cook post-match press conference transcript

[Reporter:] Very hard game for you but still your thoughts on the way Glenn Maxwell took the game away from you with one of or the finest innings in recent times?

 

[Ryan Cook:]

You know fantastic innings to get the fastest hundred in World Cup history is not something you see every day. And as he came in, he looked like he was on it from the start. And obviously made us pay. He helped himself and we helped him a little as well. So no, what a fantastic innings and he hit us to all corners of the ground.

 

[Reporter:] What was the mood in the dressing room after the first innings? What was the thought, what did you tell the boys while chasing 400?

 

[Ryan Cook:] Obviously, it’s not easy to chase 400 at any venue, but we’ve chased some big scores before, so we’ve used some templates about how we want to do about it, and we do train for those types of things

Yeah, we just said to the guys you get good value for shots here, the wicket seemed to be a good wicket and you know if we can get ourselves off to a good start hopefully get sort of half their score by 30 overs. We can really make a push on towards the end.

Obviously, we didn't even bat half the overs, so that didn't go to plan.

 

[Reporter:] This match is behind you, but there are more matches to come. You have beaten South Africa. Are there other teams you are backing yourselves to beat and which teams are you really confident against?

 

[Ryan Cook:] We're going to back ourselves against any team that we come up against. Obviously, we do have four more matches left and we'll be aiming to try and get as many victories as we can. We said that at the start of the tournament when we got here that we'll sort of be pushing for semi-finals. That looks a bit distant at the moment but obviously if we can get a couple of wins along the way from any of the teams that we come up against we'll be preparing really well for that and we're trying our best to make that happen.

 

[Reporter:] Too many highs and lows in one tournament. How are you kind of processing this?

 

[Ryan Cook:] Yeah, it's been a bit of a roller coaster the last couple of weeks or so, but no, you know, the guys are experiencing things that are new, they're experiencing things that are different. I think all of us are, even as the coaching staff. These things are coming at us thick and fast and we've got to find a way to be able to deal with them. The team prides themselves on great resilience. They pride themselves on sort of taking ownership and learning going forward. So, we hope to keep getting better and progressing for every game that we play. And if this experience will serve us, maybe not only in this tournament, but going forward, that'll be really good for us.

 

[Reporter:] What lessons do these matches teach a quite new team like yours? What will you take away from this?

 

[Ryan Cook:] Yeah, I think it's great to compete against the best teams in the world. You get to play against some of the best players in the world. You have a whole lot of experience at these types of venues, in these types of matches and some of our players obviously don't have any of that experience.

We sort of see the way that they go about things and see which things we can learn from them. There might be some sort of bigger things and also some smaller details that I think all the guys in the change room and during our debriefs, we also sort of mentioned a lot of the things that we're seeing from the other teams and how we can take those into our own game and how does that fit for us. But you know we've got our own strengths that we also try and double down on and that's what we can do and we try and do those things that are in our control as much as possible but definitely take some lessons along the way.

 

[Reporter:] How much do you think your fielding affected your chances of winning this match?

 

[Ryan Cook:] Yeah, I thought we actually had a really up and down day in the field today. We made some incredible stops. The guys threw themselves around. The effort was outstanding. There was a lot of saves all over the park and a lot of action on the field all around. There were a couple of moments there that we had a couple of chances to be able to take and a couple of ones where we made some great pieces of fielding as well. So, we'll have to go back, look at the debrief and see where we were on the run saved and all that kind of stuff. But, when these types of players give you chances, even if they're half chances, you do have to take them to be able to give yourself a good chance of victory.

 

[Reporter:] Tough day in the office for the team, collectively. But does the team do a quick post-mortem of it, or just leave it aside? Because there's just two days left, and you have just another match versus Sri Lanka, and that too in a different venue. So how do you approach it after this heavy loss?

 

[Ryan Cook:] Yeah, we're very consistent in the way that we debrief games and then obviously prepare for the next game. We'll be doing, obviously, all of our research on Bangladesh and Kolkata, the venue. But obviously, taking the learnings from this game, because there's lots of stuff, as I mentioned, to learn. And we'll go through that stringently and make sure we go down into the detail of that and come back stronger having learned those lessons, hopefully for the next couple of games to come.

 

[Reporter:]Netherlands players and the team has been talking about how you have high expectations of yourselves. How tough then is it to kind of pick yourself up after something like this? Like what kinds of things might be stressful to your players?

 

[Ryan Cook:] I think the guys will be very disappointed out there in the change room. We talked a good game before the game, as you say, and we didn't play a good game of cricket today. We didn't execute our plans quite like we wanted to and then the fight that we have shown in lots of the matches we saw only glimpses of that and we need to play better cricket for a lot longer if we're going to compete with teams like Australia.

Resilience is something as I say we pride ourselves on as a team We'll be able to get back up for the next game and learn our lessons from that. But yeah, it's firmly ours and the prize of the next game, but the guys will be hurting in the changing room for sure.

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