Kolkata, Nov. 4 -- Bas de Leede bowled a full delivery at the stumps in the 47th over of the Australia vs Netherlands match at the 2023 ODI World Cup. Glenn Maxwell reversed his stance and sent it sailing for a maximum. Two balls later, the bowler tried something different. He went shorter and slower this time. Maxwell again reversed his stance and hit another six. He completed his century in just 40 balls, the fastest in men's ODI World Cup history. Those two deliveries illustrated what made Glenn Maxwell special. His dynamic range of shots allowed him to attack different parts of a field on two similar deliveries. He made life difficult for opposition captains, as conventional field settings were rarely enough to restrict him. As the 38-year-old retires from international cricket, his versatility remains one of his biggest contributions to modern batting. In an interview with Cricbuzz in 2016, Maxwell explained the advantage. "Having that boundary ability is a massive advantage over a lot of other players and teams, because they just don't know where to bowl to you if you can hit the same ball to five or six different areas," he said. Maxwell displayed his abilities quite early in his career. During his innings against Zimbabwe in 2014, he scored 93 runs off 46 balls, hitting nine fours and five sixes. One of those maximums came from a reverse slog-sweep against Sean Williams. "When the off side field is up like it was a bit (against Zimbabwe) I was trying to go mainly off side and luckily enough I got a few balls in the area as well, so it's about playing to the field when I'm out there and trying to expose any weaknesses I can see in their field," Maxwell explained in an interaction with Cricket Australia. The schoolyard restriction The roots of Maxwell's versatility go back to his primary school days in Melbourne. During lunchtime cricket, he reportedly went an entire week without getting dismissed. This frustrated his friends, and they eventually allowed him to play only if he batted left-handed instead of his natural right-handed stance. "I just didn't want to get out and so I got banned from playing primary school cricket with my mates," Maxwell recalled during an interview in 2014. "So I played basketball for a while and stayed away from it." He eventually returned to cricket after accepting the left-handed condition. This helped him develop a skill that would make him unique during his international career. His father played a big role by encouraging such experimentation. "It's something you have to practice I suppose, and dad always kept pushing me to keep trying to do new things and he was a good coach for me when I was younger," Maxwell said. Maxwell also revealed that he closely observed players like Mike Hussey, Michael Bevan, Adam Gilchrist and Jonty Rhodes, studying how they manipulated the field. Thus his repertoire consisted of unconventional switch-hits, reverse sweeps, reverse laps and ramps along with the conventional powerful strokes. One example reveals how calculated his unconventional thinking could be. During the 2016 T20 World Cup, Maxwell switched to a left-handed stance and hit Ravindra Jadeja for a maximum. He later revealed that his original intention was to force India to move a fielder towards point, opening the cover region for a conventional drive. The thinking behind his outrageous shots Maxwell did something that has been prohibited in the coaching manual. He studied field placements, anticipated the next delivery and then premeditated his stroke....