'I had doubted my ability at this level'

Glenn Maxwell learned on the eve of his return to international cricket that he was to be re-born as an opener, taking the place of his former housemate Aaron Finch who had been forced out with a fractured finger.

And given that he's only once previously filled that role in Australia colours – in the early days of his ODI career against the West Indies in Perth – it initially seemed that 27-year-old had taken the extra responsibility a little too literally.

Not only had his acting captain David Warner spoken to him during yesterday's pre-game team meeting at the Australians' hotel in Kandy to inform him he was to tackle the new-ball in Finch's absence.

But Warner also bequeathed him the strike at the start of the innings, an honour to which Maxwell responded in the manner of any newly installed Test opener by studiously patting the first two deliveries from off-spinner Sachithra Senanayake tamely back down the pitch.

When the third yielded a failed attempt at a reverse sweep it seemed that Warner's decision to give his partner first crack at the bowling – and perhaps the call to shunt him to the top of the order – might have been misplaced.

An hour and half later, a drenched, exhausted but understandably exultant Maxwell dragged himself from the field having lifted his team to an unprecedented T20 International total of 3-263 and with a glittering personal best of 145no hanging next to his name on the huge Pallekele scoreboard.

In between those first three run-less deliveries that Maxwell faced and the dot ball at the end when Travis Head holed out to midwicket in search of an umpteenth boundary, the enigmatic Victorian covered pretty much every shot in the book.

And a few that are destined to be featured in the updated and appended edition.

Among the stand-outs of a non-stop highlights package fashioned from 65 balls – 14 of which were belted to the boundary and another nine bludgeoned beyond it – was the reverse sweep for six that carried Australia to 50 in the fifth over.

The stand-and-deliver crunch through extra cover he repeatedly launched when bowlers errantly tried to aim at his toes.

And the three consecutive sixes he landed over long-on that resembled a golfer rehearsing his one woods at a driving range.

Even his mis-hits brought rewards, none more bountiful than the chest-high full toss he scooped high in the air to backward square in the knowledge it would be deemed a no-ball.

With the pair of runs he took from that when Tillakaratne Dilshan fumbled the straightforward (though illegitimate) catch carrying him to triple figures for the first time in a T20 International.

A moment that he celebrated with gusto before a largely stunned and mute full-house.

The thumbs-up that Maxwell flashed to the Australia dressing room where coach (and national selector) Darren Lehmann applauded warmly, and the hefty man-hug he shared with Head revealed as much about the months leading into this game as it did about the 72 minutes it took him to post a century.

After Australia's reigning One-Day Player of the Year was jettisoned from the national 50-over team for a string of poor performances, and his efforts to rediscover some form with Australia A in a series of four-day and one-day games in north Queensland was almost as fruitless.

Quick Single: Maxwell axed from ODI squad for Sri Lanka tour

A top score of 46 and a couple of ducks in the second XI before he was summoned to join the T20 squad for a couple of games, from where he will return to Victoria on Saturday to prepare for the upcoming Matador BBQs One-Day Cup that begins next month.

Having again been left out of the ODI touring party for the upcoming month-long Qantas Tour of South Africa that begins in a couple of weeks.

"I've been out of the one-day team for a while now, so to get my first crack back in the main team and to do as well as I did today was brilliant," Maxwell said, bathed in sweat and battling for breath at the end of his team's record-breaking innings.

"I had doubted a fair bit about my ability at this level and to come out and strike the ball like I did today was really pleasing.

"And to have a team score like that is also really pleasing."

He also aired his thanks to Warner for giving him the opportunity to display his wares as an opener, something he had foreshadowed he would succeed at when Finch equalled Maxwell's record for the fastest ODI 50 by an Australian during the recent one-dayer against Sri Lanka at Dambulla.

An innings that prompted Maxwell to goad his mate on social media that scoring a runs in a hurry when the ball is new and hard, and the fielders are compelled to be more prevalent inside the 30-yard circle than dotted around the vast perimeter surely ain't that difficult.

The fact that Finch was the sole holder of the record for a T20 score by an Australian batter (156 against England in 2013) saw that war of wills re-ignited this evening as Maxwell powered his way to 142 with a couple of overs of the innings remaining.

A paucity of the strike in those final minutes – he faced just three balls of the final 12 as Head flayed the shell-shocked attack – meant Finch's record remained intact, to the obvious delight of the injured opener who chortled in the team dug-out as Maxwell's shot at history slipped by him.

For now, given that Finch won't be fit to play in the final T20 match of the Sri Lanka tour in Colombo on Friday.

"Of course I knew what it was," Maxwell said when asked if he was aware that he was within a couple of those extraordinary reverse slog-sweeps from taking the honour in his own right.

"I used to live with him so I knew exactly what it was.

"And he kept telling me at every drinks break, so I was well aware of it and he kept on saying that I was going to beat it.

"Then Heady started smacking them out of the park so I didn't even get a chance.

"It was perfect."

As anyone who relives that 98-minute, 65-ball innings will surely attest.