New Delhi, Oct 26: Glenn Maxwell struck the fastest century of the World Cup, while David Warner hit a second successive ton as Australia thrashed the Netherlands by a massive 309 runs here on Wednesday.Australia’s win was the biggest in the World Cup in terms of margin of runs and second biggest in the ODI history.
Maxwell (106 off 44 balls) blew away the Dutch attack to score his century off just 40 balls, while Warner struck 104 off 93 balls to power Australia to 399 for eight after opting to bat.
In the process, Maxwell bettered the earlier record of South Africa’s Aiden Markram, who had smashed 106 off 49 balls against Sri Lanka at the same ground here on October 7.
Maxwell hit nine fours and eight sixes during his whirlwind knock.
Steve Smith also made a fine 71 off 68 balls, while Marnus Labuschagne scored 62 off 47 balls.
Logan van Beek (4/74) and Bas de Leede (2/115) shared six wickets between them.
Chasing the huge total, Netherlands looked never in the hunt as they were dismissed for a paltry 90 in 21 overs.
Vikramjit Singh (25) top-scored for the Dutch.
For Australia, Adam Zampa (4/8) picked up four wickets, while Mitchell Marsh (2/19) scalped two.
Pat Cummins, Australia captain, said, Really happy, complete game. To put 400 on board and then defend well, couldn’t be happier. Crazy innings. I think we both contributed equally in that hundred partnership (chuckles). Fantastic innings, the cleanest hitting I’ve seen. We played the style we liked to. Pleased with Smithy getting runs. We were aiming for powerplay wickets, bowled quite well without a lot of luck. Zamps with another four-fer. They (New Zealand) are a really good side.. Big game in Dharamsala. It’s the World Cup and we are in a good space, can’t wait to get there. (Areas to improve) I don’t think we have totally nailed the 50 overs with the bat yet.
Scott Edwards, Netherlands captain, said, They are a quality side, we should have been better today. Execution (what could have been done better with ball). You miss by fractions and you get out of the park. Full credit to the Aussies. We got back in a bit there with 10 overs to go. Maxwell got going and we couldn’t stop him. Pretty nice wicket here and ball travels so quickly. Those two (opening batters) were awesome for us for the last 18 months and one of the reasons why we are here so we back them all the way. Just touch on things to improve and move on quickly from this and prepare ourselves for the next game.