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Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], April 18 (ANI): Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) skipper Virat Kohli lavish praise on Glenn Maxwell after the swashbuckling batsman’s knock played an important role in the team’s win over Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) on Sunday evening.

Maxwell and AB de Villiers’ knocks of 78 and 76 were backed up by a spirited bowling performance as RCB defeated KKR by 38 runs here at the MA Chidambaram Stadium.

Maxwell might have a bad season last year in the 13th edition of the IPL but the RCB batsman has been in sensational form.

In Chennai, where most of the batsmen have struggled to get going, Maxwell has come out firing on all cylinders. In the match against KKR, Varun Chakravarthy had put RCB on the back foot with two wickets in the second over but Maxwell fired a sensational half-century to put the Virat Kohli-led side on top.

“Well, I said at the halfway mark we have 200 because of two genius innings back-to-back. Maxwell was outstanding and AB to follow. When he gets in with that kind of form and flow, it’s impossible to stop him,” Kohli told host broadcaster Star Sports at the post-match presentation.

“We got 40 extra runs on that pitch which slowed down. Maxi has taken to this team like duck to water. AB loves the team and they were the difference today. There are areas we can work on. We’re not getting ahead of ourselves and not getting over-excited,” he added.

Andre Russell played a knock of runs for KKR, but in the end, RCB managed to hold on to record their third victory in a row this season. This is the first time that RCB has managed to win their first three games in an IPL season.

Kohli also hailed Mohammed Siraj and said he has improved quite a lot after India’s tour of Australia. Siraj was in impeccable form during the Australian tour and played a key role in India’s win in the four-match Test series.

“Especially Siraj’s over to Russell [was good] – he has had some history against Russell. He’s a different bowler after the Australia tour and he shut the game out. Harshal has so much clarity in the end and I think Jamieson also bowled well,” said Kohli.

“That’s the reason why we have three out of three. To be fair, on a pitch like Chennai, you probably have a bit more space to make an error on the longer boundary. It has to be on the off side and not on side,” he further said.

“Siraj did miss on the full-toss, but he has two men on the boundary. The execution was spot-on. We played in Wankhede, Kolkata and Ahmedabad where the margin of error keeps getting smaller,” Kohli added.

RCB will next lock horns with Rajasthan Royals on Thursday. (ANI)