Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) ended up second-best on the IPL 2023 ‘Southern Derby’ towards MS Dhoni’s Chennai Super Kings (CSK) on the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru on Monday. RCB batter scored an excellent 76 to enhance skipper Faf du Plessis, who scored 62, however the residence aspect nonetheless ended up dropping.
Maxwell revealed after the sport that at a smaller floor like Chinnaswamy Stadium, CSK had sufficient left-handers of their ranks to use the shorter boundaries on one aspect. The likes of Devon Conway (83 off 45 balls), Shivam Dube (52 off 27) and Moeen Ali (19 not out off 9) – all left-handers made merry as CSK piled up 226 for six after batting first.
“I think with short boundaries (at the Chinnaswamy Stadium), they played heavy left-handers. Devon Conway batted for a long period in that innings,” stated Maxwell within the post-match press convention.
The Australian all-rounder, who struck his second half-century on this IPL 2023, added that bringing in left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed to bowl to left-handers would have been a dangerous proposition. “I think, it would have been a risk to bowl Shahbaz Ahmed to those guys,” stated Maxwell.
Maxi and Faf ensured we gave a tricky battle, and loads of positives from a high-scoring thriller towards CSK. Here’s extra from Coach Sanjay and Glenn Maxwell on Game Day.#PlayBold #____RCB #IPL2023 pic.twitter.com/JoxovcTeAK
— Royal Challengers Bangalore (@RCBTweets) April 18, 2023
Both Faf du Plessis (62 off 33 balls) and Maxwell (76 off 36 balls) departed in fast succession within the center overs, with Dhoni taking their catches. The Australian wished he or his skipper had stayed slightly bit longer, which might have turned the complexion of the sport.
“We did so well to get so close. We got into a position where probably we should have won the game, I suppose, if one of us was there a little bit longer. We were trying to get as hard as we could to get the run rate under 10 and make it a little bit easier at the back end. But a pretty exciting game of cricket, unfortunately we fell a little it short,” the RCB all-rounder stated.
Maxwell stated the situations had been simply good for him to return out in his favorite place at No.4 following the lack of two early wickets of Virat Kohli (6) and Mahipal Lomror (0). “Whenever I’ve batted at No 4, I’ve generally played well. I think the pressure, the new ball swinging, it’s a pretty familiar role that I played (against CSK). Especially for Australia, I’ve played that role many a times. Even at this ground in international cricket, when it comes to mind, it’s not something that is foreign to me chasing big totals,” he added.
Maxwell stated Faf took the strain off him early on within the innings and helped him to construct the momentum in a while in powerplay. “I think I have a really clear mindset, the role that I have to play. I think together with Faf, he took a lot of pressure off me early on in my innings. I was able to take that momentum going towards the back end of the powerplay. Once we got out of the powerplay, it was just about making sure that we kept the run-rate ticking along. During the partnership, I thought we got to a position where we were on top,” Maxwell stated.
(with PTI inputs)
