Virat Kohli Ends the 4-year Drought by Hitting a Ton against SRH Equaling the IPL Record Set by Gayle

Virat Kohli of RCB, known for his stupendous shots reached his sixth century, equaling the IPL record by Chris Gayle against Sunrisers Hyderabad.

Written by: Arjita Gupta

Edited by: Krutarth Ghosalkar

Last Updated: 2023-05-19 08:35:08

Virat Kohli of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) on Thursday scored his first century in four years at IPL (Indian Premier League) after putting up a great show against Sunrisers Hyderabad, as he smashed their bowlers leaving no region of the stadium devoid of his shots to attain his sixth century of the tournament. The batsman contributed his first century in the current season as he cracked the same record by Chris Gayle, his former teammate for achieving the most three-figure score in IPL.

Kohli lost his wicket as soon as he reached 100 runs. He exited after scoring the century. It was RCB’s star bowler, Bhuvneshwar Kumar who took the wicket in the game’s 18^th over. The opener was in good form yet had slower starts for some time now. But this time around, he reached 100 in just 62 deliveries In a match against Kolkata Knight Riders during the 2019 season of the league, Kohli achieved his last century. Coincidentally, he also reached 100 on that occasion.

Through boundaries, the 34-year-old reached the initial 16 runs. He struck two fours off the opening two balls against Bhuvneshwar in the RCB innings. Virat then smacked left-arm bowler T Natarajan and spinner Abhishek Sharma for two more. In the first six overs, Kohli took advantage of the powerplay by scoring 32 runs off just 20 deliveries. The batsman eventually sped to fifty runs in just 36 balls while maintaining a strong partnership with captain Faf du Plessis.

The latter is also in outstanding form this season. For scoring fifty runs, Kohli changed his strategy since he appeared focused on reaching the three-figure milestone. In the 15th over of the innings, Kohli went for Bhuvneshwar Kumar and dismissed the fellow India colleague for four fours in five deliveries. When the goal was within reach, Kohli rotated the stroke with ease to achieve the 100-run milestone in impressive fashion, slamming Bhuvneshwar's full delivery to deep midwicket for a six.

However, he was out in the very next ball as he attempted to wrap up the chase swiftly; Kohli was caught by Glenn Phillips as the batsman could not clear the deep midwicket region. But RCB faced minimal difficulty as they successfully completed the goal with 8 wickets remaining, helping to make it to the playoff qualification.