Cameron Green has broken out of a tough patch in the IPL by producing his best batting and bowling figures of the season to help struggling Royal Challengers Bengaluru down Pat Cummins' high-flying Sunrisers Hyderabad.
The 24-year-old Green has found it hard to impose himself for RCB since his big-money move from Mumbai Indians but the gifted allrounder finally hit his imposing stride on Thursday to help silence the Hyderabad fans at the Rajiv Gandhi International Stadium.
After his season's best unbeaten 37, off just 20 balls and featuring five boundaries, provided the late-innings impetus to push RCB to a challenging 7-206, he then bowled two miserly overs for just 12 runs, while taking two crucial wickets, to help restrict Sunrisers to 8-171 and pave the way for a comprehensive 35-run win.
One of his wickets was that of his Test captain Cummins, who had threatened some late-innings danger with three sixes in his 15-ball 31 only to spoon a Green bumper to short-third man.
Green had earlier also taken the key catch when Sunrisers' Heinrich Klaasen had skied a huge blow off Swapnil Singh's so high that it seemed to hang in orbit for an age before the big Aussie with bucket hands was able to swallow it at mid-on.
South African Klaasen has been so dangerous this season that Green recognised it was a vital moment. "The whole time I was thinking, 'Klaasen, Klaasen...' in my head, so I was happy to hang on to it," he smiled at the post-match ceremony."
Green came up trumps while his Australian teammate Glenn Maxwell was continuing his self-enforced break from IPL duty after a lean run of form.
Still, Green's not quite sure what his best role as batter and bowler in the IPL is. "I'm still early on my career, and I'm still trying to work it out myself," he shrugged after whacking his runs as RCB's No.5.
"Obviously, I like batting up the order, but so does everyone else in the team, so wherever I can fit in the team and try to help, I'll take."
Green admitted that he "definitely wasn't in agreement" with captain Faf du Plessis's decision to bat first.
"But credit goes to captain and coach to go for it," he conceded, after Virat Kohli had set RCB on the way with yet another half-century (51 off 43) and player of the match Rajat Patidar then crushed a 20-ball 50 with five sixes.
Du Plessis couldn't have been happier for Green after some of his recent struggles. "Greeny getting runs tonight will be massive for him, just taking a load of his shoulders," said the skipper.
A rarity followed when the seemingly unstoppable opener Travis Head (1) lasted just three balls in Sunrisers' reply, top-edging Will Jacks to Karn Sharma with an ugly hoik.
It was the Aussie opener's first single-figure score of the tournament as he fell further behind Kohli, who's made 430 from nine innings, in the race for the orange cap as top run-gatherer.
But Cummins shrugged that Sunrisers' daring, all-or-nothing attack was always likely to fail on occasion. "It's not going to work every game, but I still think it's the way forward for our boys," he said.
Australian Associated Press
