New Delhi:
Virat Kohli looked like a man on a mission in Royal Challengers Bangalore’s chase against Mumbai Indians at the M Chinnaswamy stadium on Thursday. Chasing 188, Kohli started off with a bang by hammering three consecutive boundaries off Jasprit Bumrah. In the contest between best batsman and best bowler, the best batsman had trumped. After smashing two more boundaries off Hardik Pandya, it seemed Kohli would single-handedly break Royal Challengers Bangalore’s rut. Kohli found an able ally in AB de Villiers who found the boundary at regular intervals and kept the scoreboard ticking. When Kohli steered Bumrah to the third man region for a single, Kohli entered a special list of batsmen in the IPL.
With that single, Kohli became the second player after Suresh Raina to score 5000 runs in IPL. The right-hander achieved the feat in his 157th innings, which is the fastest for any player. Raina had achieved the feat against Royal Challengers Bangalore in the opening game of the IPL at Chepuak after Kohli had fallen for six. However, his innings was cut short when he top-edged Bumrah to square leg. Mumbai Indians bounced back in the contest despite AB de Villiers’ fifty and they won by six runs against Royal Challengers Bangalore.
However, Kohli became the first and only player to score all 5000 runs playing for one single franchise. The Royal Challengers Bangalore skipper has had a long association with the franchise, first being picked in 2008 and going from strength to strength in every edition. He was appointed as the captain of the franchise in 2013 and he led them to the play-offs on a consistent basis. In the 2016 IPL, Kohli enjoyed his most prolific season. He smashed four centuries and 973 runs in one edition but Royal Challenfers Bangalore still lost in the final to Sunrisers Hyderabad. His tally of runs and number of centuries scored in a single edition are still records.
Raina, on the other hand, scored some runs for Gujarat Lions when the Chennai Super Kings were suspended from the IPL in 2016 and 2017 due to the spot-fixing scandal. Kohli would be desperate to break Royal Challengers Bangalore’s rut when they take on Sunrisers Hyderabad at the Rajiv Gandhi International stadium in Uppal.
