IPL 2021: "It wasn't easy against the quicks" - Glenn Maxwell after his 78 against KKR
Glenn Maxwell, who has been in great touch this season, continued the excellent work with the bat in the game against the Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR).
The Aussie cricketer raced his way to 78 off just 49 balls in this match and seemed to be gratified with his performance.
Glenn Maxwell spoke about his game plan during the match as he received the Orange Cap in the mid-innings break.
Having come into bat just after the second over, Maxwell acknowledged that it felt good to bat while the field restrictions were still on.
"It was nice to get in there early and cash in on the powerplay while the ball is still hard," Maxwell said.
Speaking about the surface used in this encounter, Glenn Maxwell mentioned that it was hard work against the pacers. So his idea during his innings was to take on the spinners as much as possible. He said:
"Wasn't really against the quicks. It was a little bit of hard work but I suppose we just tried to take on the spinners as much as we could, get ourselves as many wickets as possible at the back end and hopefully, if he had an in batter out there, we could get a new batter in and give themselves a chance to get going."
When asked if the pitch was playing any tricks when the pacers were operating, Maxwell said that a few balls kept low.
"Didn't feel that you could hit the ball down the ground consistently well, it was keeping quite low. I barely hit a straight drive, it was hard to time it. We just tried to cash in on any width that we got and luckily enough, we were able to take it a bit deeper," Maxwell continued.
Glenn Maxwell impressed with AB de Villiers' knock
Glenn Maxwell was full of praise for his teammate AB de Villiers who scored an unbetean 76 off 34 balls. Talking about the Protean, the 32-year-old said:
"He's probably been the only guy that has been able to get after it (the bowling) in the last five overs on this ground and he showed his class again. It was an extraordinary knock. It just shows that if you give yourselves a bit of a chance, you can cash in here."
It's been a while since Glenn Maxwell donned the Orange Cap in the IPL. He seemed happy to claim it once again.
"Yea, its been a long time since I've worn this. So, its nice to start the tournament well," he concluded.
Glenn Maxwell has scored 176 runs in three matches thus far in IPL 2021, including a couple of half-centuries.