When Virat Kohli scored his second consecutive century in the league on Sunday night, he shattered Chris Gayle’s remarkable IPL record.
Queen’s Challengers Virat Kohli, the top batsman for Bangalore, scored his seventh century in the Indian Premier League on Sunday night, shattering the long-standing record held by his former teammate Chris Gayle. In RCB’s must-win match against Gujarat Titans in Bengaluru, Kohli performed a pivotal innings, scoring a critical three figures in just 60 deliveries for his second consecutive century of the season. The 34-year-old batsman also contributed a century against Sunrisers Hyderabad in the team’s previous match.
When he was still playing for the Royal Challengers in the 2018 tournament, Chris Gayle scored his sixth and last century in the league. A game against Kolkata Knight Riders in 2019 marked Kohli’s last century in the competition prior to this season; earlier this week, when he led a successful run-chase against the Sunrisers, he ended the wait for a three-figure score.
In order to lead the Royal Challengers to a competitive score of 197/5 in 20 overs against the Titans, Kohli persevered through difficult circumstances (caused by Bengaluru’s rain) and a delayed start as well as many wickets in the middle overs.
As the rain had almost stopped when the players took the pitch, the right-handed batter began the innings cautiously. Both Kohli and RCB skipper Faf du Plessis started to let off the gas pedal after evaluating the game’s circumstances, with the former facing Yash Dayal in the fourth over. He hit the Titans pitcher three times in a row for fours, and he and his partner eventually scored 62 runs during the Powerplay.
Following the fast dismissals of Du Plessis (28), Glenn Maxwell (11) and Mahipal Lomror (1), Kohli turned to rotating the strike and formed a key partnership with Michael Bracewell (26). In addition, Kohli reached his fifty-run mark in 35 deliveries and changed speeds quickly enough, despite the fact that Bracewell and Dinesh Karthik (0) were once more bowled in rapid succession.
Kohli eventually completed his century in 60 balls and needed just 25 to reach his second 50. In the last over of the innings, against Mohit Sharma, he drove the pitch towards long-on for a single to reach the desired three-figure mark.
The fact that Kohli now has eight T20 centuries puts him on par with the Australian trio of David Warner, Aaron Finch, and Michael Klinger.
