Glenn Maxwell hit an unbeaten 103 from 58 balls to lead Australia to victory over England in Match 2 of the trans-Tasman T20 tri-series in Hobart.

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It was an impressive statement to the Australian selectors after he was overlooked for the Test and ODI sides earlier in the summer. Though he was eventually called into the 50-over team once the series was lost, the ‘Big Show’ made the point quite clearly that he can do things few other Australian batsmen can do on the biggest stage.

[caption id=”attachment_60992″ align=”alignnone” width=”800″] Dawid Malan was the pick of England’s batsmen[/caption]

He rode his luck at times during Australia’s chase of a below-par 156. He was dropped at deep square-leg by Alex Hales when on 40, and was given a reprieve in the 50s when a low catch by Jason Roy at long-off was adjudged to have grazed the turf on video review. But Maxwell was generally dominant, striking 10 fours and four sixes – including a maximum when on 97 with one run to win, taking him to a century off what turned out to be the last ball of the game.

D’Arcy Short was Australia’s next highest scorer after David Willey took two wickets – those of David Warner and Chris Lynn – in the first over of the reply. But England’s total never truly looked like being enough once Maxwell got going.

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Their innings had started brightly enough, with Dawid Malan looking in superb touch for his 50 from 36 balls before top-edging a sweep off Glenn Maxwell – who became the first man to take three wickets and score a century in the same T20I – to the deep-square boundary. But although they had looked poised to get close to 200 at one stage, a key period that saw them lose four wickets for five runs in 14 balls took the sting out of the innings, and only Chris Jordan’s steady late 16* shepherded them over the 150 mark.

The teams meet again in the third match of the tri-series, in Melbourne on Saturday.