IPL 2021: Glenn Maxwell's huge six lands outside Chepauk stadium

If the opening match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians is an early indicator of things to follow in IPL 2021, then it looks like Glenn Maxwell is going to have a memorable campaign. The Australian star has failed to live up to the expectations in the last few years of the IPL. He scored 552 runs and helped Punjab Kings make it to the final for the first time.

But since then, the hard-hitting batsman has struggled to get going in the IPL. Last year, Maxwell endured his worst season in an IPL as he scored only 108 runs in 13 games. The right-handed batsman could not hit a single six during the entire competition. But despite his poor campaigns in recent years, RCB decided to buy him for a whopping amount of INR 14.25 crores in this year’s auction and Maxwell has started the season on a promising note.

Having not hit a single six in IPL 2020, he hit one on the very 16th ball he faced against Mumbai. After starting cautiously that saw him score 18 runs off 15 balls, Maxwell broke the shackles with a huge six that landed outside the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai. It was a tossed delivery from Krunal Pandya and Maxwell did not hesitate in coming down the track before launching the huge six.

Here is a clip of the six:

Glenn Maxwell goes HUGE in IPL opener 😮 pic.twitter.com/XlVPShz9xS

— Fox Cricket (@FoxCricket) April 9, 2021

Harshal Patel’s fifer restricts Mumbai Indians

Earlier in the game, Harshal Patel became the first-ever bowler to take a five-wicket haul against Mumbai Indians as RCB restricted the defending champions to a modest total of 159 for 9. Asked to bat first, Mumbai Indians were comfortably placed at 135 for 3 in the 16th over before Harshal ran through their lineup.

He triggered the collapse by dismissing Hardik Pandya. The right-arm pacer then went on to dismiss Ishan Kishan, Krunal Pandya, Kieron Pollard and Marco Jansen to complete his first five-wicket haul in IPL. Apart from him, Mohammed Siraj and Kyle Jamieson also did well with the ball, conceding just 22 and 27 runs off their four overs respectively. For Mumbai, debutant Chris Lynn top-scored with 49 while Suryakumar Yadav (31) was the only other batsman to cross the 30-run mark.