Royal Challengers Bangalore Virat Kohli talked highly of his teammates after a blistering 38-run win over Kolkata Knight Riders in Sunday’s clash of Indian Premier League. It is the first time when RCB have won their first three games of the season in IPL.
Kohli heaped huge praise on RCB new recruit Glenn Maxwell and said he has taken the team to “like duck to water” and claims he and AB de Villiers were the difference between the two teams.
“Maxi has taken to this team like duck to water. AB loves the team and they were the difference today,” Kohli said at the post-match presentation.
Kohli claims that RCB got 40 extra runs on the slow track of Chepauk as Maxwell scored 78 off 49 balls, while De Villiers remained not out on 76 runs off 36 balls.
“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. We got 40 extra runs on that pitch which slowed down.”
Defending the mammoth target, RCB bowlers took wickets at the regular wicket to put pressure on KKR batsmen. Kohli said that Siraj’s penultimate over to Andre Russell sealed the deal for RCB.
“Especially Siraj’s over to Russell (giving just one run in the penultimate over), 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. That’s the reason why we have three out of three.”
The RCB and India captain said the execution was spot-on on the slow Chepauk pitch.
“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. Siraj did miss on the full-toss, but he has two men on the boundary.
“There are areas we can work on. We’re not getting ahead of ourselves and not getting over-excited,” he added.