King Kohli scores his seventh IPL ton; put RCB in a commanding position

Virat Kohli lit up the Chinnaswamy Stadium with back to back centuries in TATA IPL 2023. Kohli brought up his second hundred against the Gujarat Titans in a virtual knockout match. With this hundred, Kohli has piped Chris Gayle for scoring the most hundreds in the history of the IPL. The RCB opener has now 7 hundreds in the IPL with 2 back to back in this season. Kohli scored 101 off 61 balls as RCB put 197 runs on the board. 

When the pressure is immense, the backs are against the walls, only the greatest survive and thrive under pressure. It was again the Jersey No. 18 that delivered under immense pressure in back to back matches. 

Kohli Innings Progression

It was a typical Virat Kohli innings. The flow was back and so was sound off his bat. His innings progressed as he always does. Virat started well in the powerplay as he looked fluent with his strokes. He got off to a brisk start in the powerplay scoring at a strike rate of 163 in the powerplay. Kohli was off and running with a cover drive boundary in the first over. He then scored 3 consecutive boundaries off the pull shot and he never looked back since. The impressive thing about the innings was that he did not slow down after the powerplay and continued with a healthy strike rate in the middle overs. 

Kohli held the fort with wickets falling at the other end. But that didn’t stop him from scoring quick. He struck at a SR of 148 in the middle overs with a bowling attack consisting of 2 Afghan spin wizards Rashid Khan and Noor Ahmed. Some of the cover drives that went like a tracer bullet with Ravi Shastri in the commentary box were a sight to behold. 

Kohli is a different beast when he crosses the fifty and is still at the crease in the death The underrated finisher scored with a strike rate of 200 in the death overs. Kohli squeezed a yorker through the point opening the face of the bat giving up the nostalgia of his peak 2016 days. He then attacked Shami and pierced the gaps scoring some more boundaries. He reached the milestone tapping the ball through midwicket as he raised the bat and soaked in the applause from the Chinnaswamy crowd. But he did not celebrate much, knowing that this is a must win game for RCB to qualify for the playoffs. 

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