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Maxwell's got that winning feeling

After a year of mixed results, Victoria's star batter is glad to be back in the winner's circle

Glenn Maxwell put the disappointments of last week behind him to play a starring role in Victoria's 13-run win over Queensland in the JLT One-Day Cup on Sunday.

Five days after he was left out of Australia's Test squad for the two-Test series against Pakistan next month – much to the shock of Test great Ricky Ponting – Maxwell scored 80 for Victoria in Townsville as the visitors clinched a tense victory in the season opener.


Having put the omission behind him, the 29-year-old's focus is now solely on helping Victoria win, a feeling he says he hasn't experienced a lot in 2018.

"I'm not thinking about that right now. That's gone at the moment. No point dwelling on it and talking about it," Maxwell said when asked about his Test snub. 

"My job right now is to make runs and play well for Victoria. If I can contribute to wins like today and we can have some success and sing the song together they're special moments.

"I feel like I haven't won a lot of games this year. With Delhi we had a pretty average (Indian Premier League) tournament, with the English one-dayers over there we got pumped (5-0) and lost the tri-series final (in Zimbabwe) as well. There's hasn't been much success.

"I think we lost three of our four practice games as well.

"It's nice to win a game and start the tournament off well. We haven't always started the tournament well so today is a really good sign of where we're heading as a group."

Maxwell launches JLT Cup campaign with fighting 80

Asked whether being overlooked would make him more determined, Maxwell said: "You don't need extra determination playing for your state, playing with your mates, that's for sure.

"It was good fun to get back out there and I've got a lot of really good mates out here."

Big Billy floors White with wild beamer

What made Maxwell's knock more impressive is the precarious position his side was in when he entered the action.

Maxwell walked out to the middle of Riverway Stadium at 3-40 in the seventh over having watched captain Peter Handscomb fall for a duck and No.3 Cameron White floored by a Billy Stanlake beamer.

But in concert with new recruit Nic Maddinson, Maxwell saw off the new ball, consolidated and then counter attacked to guide his side to a match-winning total.

Maddinson makes fine 68 on Victoria debut

Maxwell and Maddinson put on 101 for the fifth wicket, with the right-hander's 80 contributing one third of the team score and featuring eight fours and a lone six – the maiden maximum of the tournament.

"From the position the game was in, coming in at three-for in the powerplay and the ball zipping around and doing all sorts out there it was nice to get through that and put on a partnership with 'Maddo' and give us something to bowl at," Maxwell said.

"You're always wary of when it seams in the morning that it's going to flatten out in the arvo and lucky enough it still seamed around a little bit for their innings and we were able to get enough wickets to really drive the game after that.

"It was nice to get some runs and start the tournament off well."

Victoria's next match is on Wednesday against Tasmania at the same venue.