Defending champions Royal Challengers Bengaluru cruised to the top of the IPL table with a six-wicket win over Kolkata Knight Riders here Wednesday thanks to Virat Kohli’s unbeaten 105.
After a pair of ducks, Kohli came back with bang in Raipur and ran out the finish for his team batting first in chase of 193 to guide his chase home with class 60-ball innings.
The 37-year-old struck his ninth hundred in IPL, hitting 11 fours and three sixes.
Kohli also became the quickest to 14,000 runs in T20 cricket – he walked off after scoring 29 from 23 balls on this occasion – doing so in just his 409th innings, outperforming Chris Gayle’s record of 423.
Kohli said, “I just love batting. It is an absolute honour to be playing at this level. And that is literally all I did my whole life. “I wanna live every day to the fullest.”
This season, Bengaluru’s eighth win in 12 matches has moved them to the top of the 10-team table on net run-rate, tightening their grip on a playoff position even further above Gujarat Titans.
Kolkata suffered their sixth loss in 11 matches, further denting their extremely slim hopes of squeezing through to the playoffs.
The playoffs will be made up of the top four, while the final will take place in Ahmedabad on May 31.
Das’drive for four runs | Source: TwitterKohli was to open the face off bowling and scored a single in first over of the chase, punching the air celebrating mockingly after having recorded two ducks in a row.
Kohli said: “There is a reason people say “pressure is privilege”
Pressure, good pressure always brings the better out of the game”, he said. So you level up, you keep leveling up your game. “I’m not going to lie: I was nervous, I just wanted to get off the mark.
He was joined by Devdutt Padikkal who made 39 as they partnered up for the second wicket with 92 runs added after Jacob Bethell fell on 15.
However, Kohli who was walking on 21 let Kolkatans down as he raised his fifty in just 32 balls.
Bengaluru parted with Padikkal, skipper Ruturaj Gaikwad and then Tim David to a sensational one- handed diving catch at backward point by Manish Pandey.
However, Kohli composed himself and reached his 1st ton of the season in a stand full of applause before Jitesh Sharma, wicketkeeper-batter, gave Punjab victory.
Kolkata had scored 192-4 on the back of a 71 off just 46 balls by Angkrish Raghuvanshi.
Raghuvanshi forged belligerent partnerships such as with Cameron Green, who scored 32 and Rinku Singh, who whacked his way to an unbeaten, 29-ball 49.
While Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Josh Hazlewood and Rasikh Salam picked up a wicket each among the pacers.