The Kolkata Knight Riders faced off against Royal Challengers Bangalore in a crunch tie of IPL 2021. Having won the toss, Virat Kohli had no hesitation in batting first. However, his side was rocked back as they lost two early wickets in the second over of the game. Virat was caught brilliantly by Rahul Tripathi who completed a fantastic catch running backwards while Rajat Patidar was bamboozled by the mystery spin of Varun Chakravarthy.
In walked Glenn Maxwell with his side reeling at a score of 9/2 after two overs. He got things going with a four through the backward point region of the bowling of Shakib. Maxwell looked in fine form and was comfortable against every bowler at the crease. His magical knock of 78 runs of just 49 balls included 9 fours and 3 sixes. His partnerships of 86 runs with Devdutt Padikkal and 53 runs with AB de Villiers set up the game beautifully for RCB.
His skipper Virat Kohli was mighty impressed with his knock and gave him a cheeky standing ovation after his fifty. Virat realised the importance of Maxwell’s knock as it had come in difficult circumstances against one of the more balanced attacks of the tournament on a sluggish Chennai surface.
Watch the video of Virat kohli’s cheeky Response:
Virat Kohli applauding Maxi ???#IPL2021 #RCBvKKR #Maxwell #ViratKohli pic.twitter.com/bJsgswulCe
— Nishanth Sudarshan (@NishDoitAll) April 18, 2021
Maxwell was finally dismissed as he top-edged a pull of fellow Aussie Pat Cummins and was caught by Harbhajan Singh at short fine leg. His knock knocked out the wind out of the sails of Kolkata’s bowlers who were later on hammered by AB de Villiers. So far, Glenn Maxwell has justified his price tag for his new franchise who had shelved 14.25 crore on the Aussie in the auctions. If he continues his form, he is in line to become the Most Valuable Player of the tournament.
