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Glenn Maxwell and Josh Hazlewood both shone with the ball for Royal Challengers Bangalore as they moved into the top four of the IPL with a win over Chennai.
Glenn Maxwell and Josh Hazlewood have both excelled with the ball in an Indian Premier League triumph that thrusts Royal Challengers Bangalore into the top four.
The two Australian international colleagues were both in miserly mood in Pune on Wednesday as they produced tight spells and took key wickets which strangled Chennai Super Kings' response to RCB's 8-173.
Maxwell's 2-22 off his four overs knocked the stuffing out of Chennai's reply before Hazlewood proved effective in the death overs, getting rid of Chennai's key man and captain, MS Dhoni, in the penultimate over to effectively seal the eventual 13-run victory.
Hazlewood was the most economical bowler in the whole match, taking 1-19 off his four-over allocation, including 10 dot balls.
Earlier, Maxwell had looked severely irritated at the MCA Stadium after his run of low scores continued - he's made only 160 runs in eight IPL innings this season - when he was run out for just three in RCB's innings.
Called through for a single which never looked on by Virat Kohli, who still looked a bit out of sorts while making 30 off 33 balls, Maxwell had no chance as he was beaten by Robin Uthappa's throw.
But brought into the attack in the eighth over, Maxwell had his revenge straight away when Chennai batted, getting Uthappa caught at backward point second ball before striking again a couple of overs later by bowling Ambati Rayudu with a slower one.
Hazlewood was equally tidy and with Dhoni's presence still offering Chennai the sniff of an unlikely victory, he had the great man caught at deep midwicket after mistiming a mighty pull.
"It was a really good bowling effort. We felt there was enough tackiness in the wicket to exploit with our spinners and then for our quicks to hold their nerve at the back end with some really powerful death hitters, they did a great job to finish that game," said Maxwell.
"The finger spinners were getting a bit of hold and a little bit of grip out of the surface. For me, it was just about trying to pitch the ball on the stumps as much as I can and try to vary the seam angle to try and get that variable spin out of the wicket."
Maxwell praised RCB's batsmen, in particular captain Faf du Plessis (38 off 22 balls), Mahipal Lomror (42 off 27) and Dinesh Karthik (26no off 17), for beginning to hit their straps.
"Winning momentum is hard to stop and we feel like our batters are starting to hit the middle of the bat more and more," he said. "Hopefully we haven't left it too late and can peak right towards finals and find a way into that top four and do some damage in the finals."
