Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli on Sunday (April 18) showered rich praise on Glenn Maxwell as the swashbuckling batsman played a key role in the team’s 38-run victory over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) at Chepauk.
Opting to bat first, RCB were reeling at 9/2 when Maxwell arrived in the middle. Amid the pressure situation, the Aussie batsman played his natural and slammed 78 off 49 balls with 9 fours and 3 sixes.
Later, AB de Villiers smashed 76 not out off 34 deliveries to take RCB to a gigantic 204/4 in 20 overs.
See Also: “It will be fantastic”, AB de Villiers open to make international return at T20 World Cup
"Well, I said at the halfway mark we have 200 because of two genius innings back-to-back. Maxwell was outstanding and AB to follow. When he gets in with that kind of form and flow, it's impossible to stop him," Kohli said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
"We got 40 extra runs on that pitch which slowed down. Maxi has taken to this team like duck to water. AB loves the team and they were the difference today. There are areas we can work on. We're not getting ahead of ourselves and not getting over-excited," he added.
With the ball, RCB restricted KKR to 166/8 in 20 overs. Harshal Patel (2-17), Yuzvendra Chahal (2-34), Washington Sundar (1-33) and Kyle Jamieson (3-41) were among the wickets for Bangalore.
But for the RCB skipper, Mohammed Siraj was the pick of the bowlers. Siraj may not have taken a wicket but he conceded only 17 in his 3 overs and gave away only 1 run while bowling to Andre Russell in the penultimate over.
"Especially Siraj's over to Russell [was good] - he has had some history against Russell. He's a different bowler after the Australia tour and he shut the game out. Harshal has so much clarity in the end and I think Jamieson also bowled well," said Kohli.
"That's the reason why we have three out of three. To be fair, on a pitch like Chennai, you probably have a bit more space to make an error on the longer boundary. It has to be on the off side and not on side," he further said.
"Siraj did miss on the full-toss, but he has two men on the boundary. The execution was spot-on. We played in Wankhede, Kolkata and Ahmedabad where the margin of error keeps getting smaller," Kohli added.
RCB will take on Rajasthan Royals in their next match on Thursday (April 22).
(With ANI inputs)
