Virat Kohli delivered a stellar performance, playing an innings of 77 runs off 49 balls. Virat Kohli‘s batting heroics were instrumental in steering Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) to their maiden win of Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024.
Virat Kohli scored 77 runs in 49 balls, with 11 fours and two sixes. He scored his runs at a strike rate of over 157. RCB beat PBKS by four wickets, and Virat Kohli played a major role. Virat Kohli, who took a two-month paternity break, didn’t forget to mention that whether it is cricket in the Olympic program or T20 World Cup in the USA, he is ‘The Face’.
Virat Kohli transcends the conditions versus Punjab Kings.
Sam Curran, Arshdeep Singh and even Harshal Patel usually known for bowling variations rather than for pounding the pitch in search of variance. Kagiso Rabada fitted the requirement and was the best visiting seamer [2 for 23]. But with PBKS constantly turning to him for breakthrough, he was bowled out by the 14th over.
Curran, though, should have dismissed Virat Kohli with his second ball if compatriot Jonny Bairstow had held on to a sharp catch at slip. And Virat Kohli was in no mood to waste the reprieve or the powerplay when scoring was relatively easier. Mindful of the two-paced nature of the pitch and the shorter-than-usual lengths that he was going to be fed, Virat Kohli repeatedly kept charging down the pitch and hit the seamers through the line, aerially if necessary, and past the ring of fielders on the off-side .
This way Kohli met the ball on the bounce and could create momentum through his extraordinary hand speed. In the first four overs, he hit eight boundaries and even after facing a tight sixth over from Curran, had raced on to 35 off 21 in a powerplay score of 50. Again, this was exactly 10 runs more than what PBKS had achieved with the bat in the first six overs.
Kohli was brisk all through last year with an overall powerplay strike-rate of 136. Today he went 30 points higher and rightly so. The excellent Harpreet Brar, delivering the second-most economical spell by a spinner at the venue [2 for 13], engineered a slowdown through the middle-overs, but Kohli kept finding the release boundaries to keep RCB abreast with the scoring rate.
One more person seemed to be mighty impressed with Virat Kohli’s extreme fitness and hunger for runs was Kevin Pietersen of England who feels that its his extreme fitness that leads him to be the world class player he is.
Virat Kohli has turned Indian cricketers into athletes- Kevin Pietersen
Former England captain Kevin Pietersen said one of Virat Kohli’s biggest contributions to Indian cricket has been to turn Indian cricketers into athletes. Virat Kohli delivered a stellar performance, playing an innings of 77 runs off 49 balls. Speaking to Star Sports Kevin Pietersen emphasized on Virat Kohli’s fitness as how he quickly ran between the wickets during the chase.
“He (Kohli) has turned Indian cricketers into athletes, out-and-out athletes. And while doing so, he hasn’t just talked the talk. He has walked the talk and you can see that. When he is running between the wickets, his energy, commitment, and desire is to be the best and he is the best,”
Pietersen further added:
“That starts before the field, that starts with diet, the energy which he puts in the gym, with the sacrifices he has to make to walk the talk. The turnaround in Indian cricket is because of what he has done,”
Kevin Pietersen believes Virat Kohli is one of the greatest finishers of all time
Kevin Pietersen is in awe of Virat Kohli for the number of times the latter played a major role in a successful chase throughout his career. With the game against Punjab becoming another example of the same, Pietersen believes Kohli will go down as one of the greatest finishers of the game.
On this, he stated:
“One of the things everyone will remember and will make the greatest memories as a player will be him (Kohli) finishing innings and being one of the greatest finishers of all time,”
Virat Kohli is currently the holder of the Orange Cap with 98 runs from two matches. RCB will next play the Kolkata Knight Riders at home on Friday, March 29.