Virat Kohli has smashed the first century of the Indian Premier League 2024 in Royal Challengers Bengaluru's clash against Rajasthan Royals in Jaipur. Kohli continued his Midas touch in the tournament and smashed his 8th IPL ton.
RCB were asked to bat first by RR at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. Kohli and RCB skipper Faf du Plessis led the charge brilliantly with the bat. The two put up a partnership of 125 runs for the opening wicket.
Kohli got to his half-century in 39 balls. The RCB stalwart got to the three-figure mark in 67 deliveries. It seemed that Kohli batted on a whole different surface at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium. While du Plessis also made 44, none of the other players could get into the double digits. The former RCB skipper ended the innings on 113* from 72 balls laced with four sixes and 12 fours on what looked not a very easy batting surface as seen in the first innings. Kohli's contribution was the major highlight and vital cog in RCB reaching to 183 in their 20 overs
Kohli smashes joint-highest IPL score
This is Kohli's joint-highest score in the Indian cash-rich league. Before this, he made 113 vs Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) in 2016, a season where he was a different beast altogether.
Kohli is the first player to get to 7500 runs in the Indian cash-rich league. He began the match at 7466 runs and needed 34 to reach the milestone.
Kohli and du Plessis had an association for 125 runs for the opening wicket. This was the 28th time the 35-year-old has been involved in a 100-run stand in IPL.
Batters involved in most 100-plus partnerships in the IPL (any wicket):
Virat Kohli - 28
David Warner -26
Shikhar Dhawan - 21
Chris Gayle - 20
Faf du Plessis - 19
AB de Villiers - 17
Most 100-plus opening partnerships in the IPL
6 - David Warner & Shikhar Dhawan
5 - David Warner & Jonny Bairstow
5 - Virat Kohli & Faf du Plessis
4 - Mayank Agarwal & KL Rahul
4 - Ruturaj Gaikwad & Devon Conway
4 - Virat Kohli & Chris Gayle
RR's Playing XI:
Yashasvi Jaiswal, Jos Buttler, Sanju Samson (c & wk), Riyan Parag, Dhruv Jurel, Shimron Hetmyer, Ravichandran Ashwin, Trent Boult, Avesh Khan, Nandre Burger, Yuzvendra Chahal
RCB's Playing XI:
Virat Kohli, Faf du Plessis (c), Rajat Patidar, Glenn Maxwell, Cameron Green, Dinesh Karthik (wk), Saurav Chauhan, Reece Topley, Mayank Dagar, Mohammed Siraj, Yash Dayal
