IPL 2023: He likes pace of the pitch – Sunil Gavaskar lauds Cameron Green’s knock

Legendary Indian batter Sunil Gavaskar showered praise on Cameron Green after the Australian played a match-winning knock in Mumbai Indians’ 14-run win against Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium, Hyderabad on Tuesday.

Green scored a top knock of 64 runs off 40 balls to help Mumbai Indians post 192 runs on the board after Aiden Markram decided to bowl first. In fact, Green got off to a sedate start as he was 20 from 18 balls in the early stage of his innings but he was able to change gears.

The lanky Australian added 56 runs with Tilak Varma, in which the latter scored the bulk of the runs.

Born and brought up in Perth, there is no surprise that Green likes pace on the ball and he is good against fast bowlers. Green took 20 runs in the 18th over against T Natarajan as MI scored 83 runs in the last five overs to finish on a high.

“He likes pace of the pitch. He is brought up in Australia where there was a lot of pace bowling and not so much of spin bowling. So clearly, that worked. That’s good thinking. You have to be proactive in T20 cricket. He started slowly when the spinners were on at that stage. So he took his time. But, when you have the shots that he has, you can take a bit of time, even in this format of the game. 64 off 40 is a very good return,” Gavaskar told Star Sports.

On the other hand, the former Australian skipper heaped praise on Tilak Varma, who scored another impressive knock of 37 runs from 17 balls with the help of two fours and four sixes. The left-hander was able to hit the ground running after joining forces with Cameron Green.

“Absolutely, how aggressive he is! He has got all the shots in the book. He took a little bit of pressure of Cameron Green there. Markande was bowling a decent spell there, the way he came out and attacked him, he went after the spinners before he took on Marco Jansen.” Finch said.

MI will next play Punjab Kings on Saturday at the Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai.