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With a win against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2023 at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium in Hyderabad on Thursday, Royal Challengers Bangalore all-rounder Glenn Maxwell feels that the team is peaking at the right time in the tournament.
Kohli and Faf du Plessis's breathtaking partnership of 172 clinched a dominating win and two crucial points for RCB against SRH. Maxwell also lauded SRH's Heinrich Klaasen for his batting performance. "It's been a long time on the road for us, we knew we had to be in the position of striking distance. The last two games have really perked up the squad. We feel we are peaking at the right time. It was sensational, even some of the shots through the covers off the back foot shows the form he is in at the moment. He was really hard to bowl to, the spinners and pacers if they were short, he punished them, hats off to him". He lauded bowling of Mohammed Siraj. "Siraj all his four overs - I think he went for under 20 with not all assistance from the wicket and Parnell as well. We were one seamer short on that pitch and it did not spin that much in the first innings. They are such good players; the left-arm spin was from one end and they knew what to do from the other end. They cashed in when they got some pace on the ball. It will be nice to go back to our home fans, we had five games there and the crowd were roaring. It will be nice to take on the table-toppers with our players purring," Maxwell said in the post-match presentation. Put to bat first, SRH lost early wickets as Michael Bracewell cleared up Abhishek Sharma for 11 and then Rahul Tripathi for 15. The duo of Aiden Markram and Klaasen rotated the strike brilliantly, not allowing the RCB bowlers to settle down while whacking the loose balls on offer. Klaasen played a brilliant knock of 104, providing his team with a total of 186/5 in 20 overs. For RCB, M Bracewell was the pick of the bowler, taking two scalps by conceding only 13 runs. Mohammed Siraj, Shahbaz Ahmed and Harshal Patel took one wicket each. Chasing a total of 187, the celebrated RCB duo Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis gave an outstanding opening stand of 172. RCB won comfortability with Kohli's century off 63 balls and Faf's 71 off 47 balls. Kohli was awarded "Player of the Match" award for his outstanding performance. SRH bowlers seemed hopeless and got only two breakthroughs. Bhuvneshwar Kumar and T Natarajan took one-one wicket. (ANI)
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