Virat Kohli registered yet another feat iof his career n the opening match of Royal Challengers Bangalore at the Indian Premier League on Sunday. In the game against Mumbai Indians at the Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bengaluru, Virat left behind Shikhar Dhawan to become the leading run-scorer against MI in the history of the tournament. Kohli surpassed Dhawan's 871 runs against the 5-time champions and topped the list.
In the match, Kohli smashed his 45th fifty off just 38 balls. He smashed 82 runs off 49 balls and remained unbeaten at a strike rate of 167.35. His innings included 6 fours and 5 sixes.
RCB won the match by thrashing MI by 8 wickets. In the match played at the Chinnaswamy stadium, Virat Kohli and Faf du Plessis guided their team to an easy win by 8 wickets. Coming to bat first, Mumbai set a target of 172 runs powered by Tilak Verma. On the other hand, RCB chased the total in just 16.2 overs.
"I thought it was a phenomenal win, a homecoming after 4 years. Couldn't have asked for a better game. We bowled well for the first 17 overs but then credit to their batters especially Tilak who batted really well. It was a very comprehensive win and we wanted to win with balls to spare as it will benefit the NRR. The new ball was tricky, that's where we shifted the momentum, they can ride on that momentum from the last two overs of their batting but the way we started nullified all that momentum. We kept the pressure on the bowlers," Virat said at post-match conference.
"Phenomenal, it was a packed crowd, every seat was full when we walked in here. Very important we started off well, their support propelled us and that makes a massive difference. I think he was phenomenal, phenomenal spell from him, that's brave bowling after getting the left-hander out [on Karn Sharma]. He was bowling so well for us last year but he couldn't play. Even in the nets he was not getting hit for sixes, hats off to him for coming and playing after so long, to perform against such a strong MI side at the Chinnaswamy is great for him. I wanted to mention this for a while - after MI who have 5 titles and CSK who have 4, if I'm not wrong, we are the third team to have qualified the most times to the playoffs - 8 times. Take one game at a time and try to be a balanced side which we are and we would look to execute our plans as we did tonight," he added.
Royal Challengers Bangalore Playing XI: Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (captain), Glenn Maxwell, Michael Bracewell, Shahbaz Ahmed, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Karn Sharma, Harshal Patel, Akash Deep, Reece Topley, Mohammed Siraj
