‘Glenn Maxwell is Halley’s Comet of Cricket’: Manjrekar's astronomical reference to bash PBKS star's IPL inconsistency

Former India cricketer Sanjay Manjrekar made an outrageous comparison of Glenn Maxwell as his inconsistent show in IPL once again came under the scanner. Maxwell scored 30 against Rajasthan Royals as Punjab Kings lost their first match of the season on Saturday night. The hosts failed to match the intensity of the Royals during the chase and were short of 50 runs in the end. Glenn Maxwell scored 30 runs against Rajasthan Royals.(AFP)

During the tall 206-run chase, Maxwell had the tough job of taking his team over the line after the top-order failure. The star all-rounder stabilised the chase after powerplay alongside young Nehal Wadhera to give Punjab a fighting chance but he threw his wicket away at a crucial juncture of the game.

The Aussie star came out to bat in the middle in the 7th over; that's when Manjrekar made an astronomy reference in the commentary box and compared Maxwell's batting to Halley's Comet.

“Halley's Comet orbits the sun and is visible from Earth once every 75 years. Just like that, Glenn Maxwell plays one good match in 75 games. It was last seen in 1986, and it will now be spotted in 2061. It's the same case with Maxwell in batting. Glenn Maxwell is Halley’s Comet of Cricket," Manjrekar said on JioHotstar.

Navjot Singh Sidhu was also present in the commentary box, and at that time, he didn't completely agree with Manjrekar, although he suggested that 'Maxwell plays one good match in 25 games'.

Maxwell, who has been playing IPL since IPL 2012, has registered just three seasons with 400 or more runs. In the last season, when he played for RCB, he scored just 52 runs in 10 matches.

Maxwell fails to take PBKS over the line

Meanwhile, Maxwell and Wadhera showed resilience in their 88-run partnership, but the rest of the Punjab batters failed to rise to the occasion, scoring a total of only 155-9. Maxwell faced 21 balls to score 30 runs, which were laced with a four and a six, but when Punjab needed him to put his foot on the accelerator, he failed to do so.

Theekshana had Maxwell (30) caught in the deep and fellow Sri Lankan spinner Wanindu Hasaranga sent back Wadhera (62) on the first ball of the next over to derail the chase.

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