Glenn Maxwell smashed his way to an unbeaten 55-ball 120, a record-equalling fifth century in the format as Australia beat West Indies by 34 runs in the second T20I at the Adelaide Oval on Sunday (February 11).

Maxwell’s feat put him at level with Rohit Sharma for the most centuries in T20Is and helped Australia to post the highest-ever T20I total in their country. With early wickets lost in pursuit of a big chase, West Indies were never really in the hunt. Rovman Powell (63 off 36), Andre Russell (37 off 16) and Jason Holder (28* off 16) all threw their bat around but could only help in limiting the margin of defeat.

Earlier in the day, Australia got off to a bumpy start after being put into bat as Josh Inglis fell early after a scratchy start to his innings. However, skipper Mitchell Marsh set the tone with an ultra-aggressive cameo to create momentum into the innings. David Warner played second fiddle to his captain as the partnership flourished but the pair fell in the space of eight deliveries to give West Indies some respite.

On a good batting surface with short square boundaries, the carnage was only about to start. Maxwell took a few balls to get in before hitting top gear. Such was the level of Maxwell’s dominance that his 82-run stand with Marcus Stoinis had the latter contributing just 16 of those. Tim David (31* off 14) then combined for an unbroken 95-run stand as Australia raced away to a daunting total. All of Maxwell’s trademark strokes were on display – the loft over cover, slice over backward point mixed with the occasional switch-hits and reverse sweeps. One outrageous reverse-pull against Akeal Hosain was the jaw-dropping shot of the lot.

For West Indies to make a game of this, they needed a near-perfect run chase but that wasn’t to be. Johnson Charles and Nicholas Pooran got brisk starts after Brandon King’s early dismissal but both fell along with Shai Hope within the powerplay to further Australia’s dominance. From then on, it was only about the margin of victory as West Indies’ chances of getting anywhere close was near impossible. Even with the extreme batting conditions and boundary dimensions on offer.

Powell and Russell showed their power-hitting skills with some brutal hitting but the task at hand was a bridge too far even for them. Their knocks along with Holder’s cameo at the end made the game seem like a closer contest than it actually was. Australia’s bowlers on their part did well to ensure that batters were forced to hit down the ground where the dimensions were longer as opposed to the short square boundaries. All of them were among the wickets with Marcus Stoinis being the most successful of the lot.

Brief scores: Australia 241/4 in 20 overs (David Warner 22, Mitchell Marsh 29, Glenn Maxwell 120*, Tim David 31*; Jason Holder 2-42) beat  West Indies 207/9 in 20 overs (Johnson Charles 24, Rovman Powell 63, Andre Russell 37, Jason Holder 28*; Marcus Stoinis 3-36, Josh Hazlewood 2-31, Spencer Johnson 2-39) by 34 runs