Royal Challengers Bangalore head coach Simon Katich lauded middle-order mainstay Glenn Maxwell for the maturity he has shown with the bat at the start of his team’s Indian Premier League 2021 campaign.
Katich took special note of Maxwell’s effort in a video posted on the official RCB website after his impressive batting performances in the victories over Mumbai Indians and Sunrisers Hyderabad.
Maxwell scored an important 28-ball 39 versus defending champions MI and backed it up with a highly crucial fifty (59 off 41 balls) against rivals SRH.
Both the knocks came under pressure after Maxwell was released by Punjab Kings and was picked by RCB at the IPL 2021 auction in February for a whopping sum of INR 14.25 crores. He also had to counter two competent attacks in difficult batting conditions in Chennai.
“He’s shown a lot of maturity, particularly today (against SRH on Wednesday) , when wickets were falling around him… He summed up the conditions really well, and took the game deep, that’s credit to him for his experience for summing it up and then executing right at the end when we needed some quick runs,”
Katich was quoted as saying from the video.
Maxwell managed to score only 108 runs from 13 matches at 15.42 per innings in the IPL 2020 in UAE for PBKS. But the dynamic right-hand batter from Australia seems to be relishing the trust shown, the clarity and consistency provided to him by the RCB management and ownership group. Katich said Maxwell adds value in multiple facets of the game to the team.
“He’s been magnificent. He’s had a big role for us, first in the field helping Virat out there with field positioning to have the right guys in the right places at the right time.
He has really embraced it. He’s taken a lot of the young guys under his wing at fielding practice, worked with him on that aspect of our game because we know that’s an area we have to keep being good and really open up opportunities for run out and catches,”
Katich added.
Looking back at the win against SRH, Katich said RCB’s spirit came to the fore in how they successfully defended the modest total of 149/8 despite the opposition being 91/2 at one stage, requiring only 58 more runs off 48 balls.
“It’s certainly obviously gets tense, but I think spirit with which we played that was fantastic in both games, so regardless of result we’re really proud of the way they go about it. The fact that we got over the line both times is great.”
Katich said.
Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) next play Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday (April 18) in Chennai.
