Green said his team sat out their last IPL league game with the intention of improving their net return rate. MI’s task of bettering NRR over RRB required an unlikely score of 201 in just 11.4 overs.
“Our intention was to win the game. We weren’t going to try and chase the target in the seventh anyway or anything to try and increase our (net) run rate,” Green told media here. after the game.
“We know how close games can be here at Wankhede, both teams are really scoring freely here. All we thought was winning and putting pressure on RCB,” he added.
Green ranked his century as his best in the format, which also happened to be his first-ever triple-digit score in the shortest format.
“Certainly in the T20 format you never know what your best run is because you’re playing in so many different conditions,” he said.
Green praised Akash Madhwal, whose 4/37 stopped SRH at 200 for five as they looked set for a bigger total.
“As soon as he arrived he kind of changed our line-up basically. I think with the role he played, especially at the back, taking the overs away from us so we could play a bit more through the power play, we can mix and match different people to play bowling at different times depending on its quality.
“He’s got a really good head on him, he’s so calm. It kind of feels like he’s cut out for it,” he said.
The versatile Aussie hoped his experience over the past three months would help him on future tours of India.
“I think anytime you’re exposed to subcontinent conditions, as an Australian you’re not really used to how high the ball sometimes skids or spins,” he said.
“Any experience we get here is so valuable, beating in different conditions. The last three and a half months I’ve had here have been so valuable, hopefully it will hold me in good stead to come back here and I can pass it on to the other guys that come,” added Green.
SRH head coach Brian Lara said he had a chat with Sachin Tendulkar after the game and they both wanted to get back into the game given the quality of the pitch.
“It’s a belt. I was just talking to Sachin and we were like we’d like to come back there on such ground. It’s always going to be a situation that whoever won the draw would prefer to pursue because you don’t know what a good score is.
“Today we were more muscular. We knew there would be a feast of races. We know they’ve run over 200 races here on multiple occasions. We were just more muscular,” Lara said.
The West Indian legend used the word “muscular” to describe Green’s sleeves.
“I used the word muscle. He was brutal. Take a man on stage. Somebody like that, his size, his reach, the leverage he has, when he gets the ball out of the middle of the bat, it’ll be fine. A shiny cent.
“He beats without fear, I guess that’s how he was allowed to beat in the Mumbai Indians setup. We all knew he had the talent to become big. Thanks to him for getting his first cent for him,” he said.
Lara has named Nitish Reddy as the player to watch going forward.
“Finally, we got a brilliant opening partnership which is to be congratulated. We have to take all the positives, not just from today but throughout the season. The SRH team is very young and potentially a very good team.
“I have to single out Nitish Reddy. You haven’t seen him beat yet but I’m sure the young man has a very, very bright future,” he said.
(With PTI entries)
