“Played the vintage Virat we all know”: Cameron Green praises RCB star

Cameron Green praised star batsman Virat Kohli for playing a “old” innings to keep Royal Challengers Bangalore in the IPL playoff race. Kohli made full use of three innings, including one on duck, to score 92 off 47 balls, laying the foundation for a 60-run win over Punjab Kings in a vital match in Dharamshala on Thursday. “He played the vintage Virat that we all know. It was a beautiful watch from the other end. That’s the beauty of having Virat in your team, as an opposition you can’t give him that many chances,” Green said in the post-match press meet.

The Australian all-rounder, who scored 46 off 27 balls, said Kohli was trying to be aggressive and the drops had no effect on him.

“He’s always going to hurt you, especially if you knock him down three or four times. He was really trying to be aggressive at the beginning of his innings. I think after giving up a few catches he looked like he didn’t have much to lose,” Green said.

To remain in the race for the playoffs, the Bengaluru team still needs to win its remaining two matches against Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings at home.

Green said that the team has performed well by winning four consecutive matches after consecutive losses.

“Yeah, I think what we did really well is look at the next game. I think at the beginning of the tournament you can always look ahead to see what’s going to happen, where we are in the table.

“But I think that’s the beauty of where we were (now), we were kind of pushed into a corner and we could really only focus on the next game,” he said.

Meanwhile, Punjab Kings assistant coach Brad Haddin blamed dropped catches for his team’s defeat.

The Kings dismissed Kohli and Green more than once and they wound up playing quick innings, helping RCB post a tally of 241 for seven.

In reply, PBKS could only score 181 runs before being bowled out.

He said, “100 per cent of the time we lost the match because of dropped catches. If we look at the game, we got two guys out for ducks and both scored big runs. This is where the game was lost.

He said, “There was not much difference in the batting and bowling of both the teams. “The catches we dropped cost us the game,” Haddin said.

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